Dry-Aged Fish Pioneer Liwei Liao Unveils Joint Seafood’s Next Chapter With a VIP Party
It was just a few minutes before Monday night’s industry preview party at Joint Seafood in the Los Angeles Arts District was set to begin, when owner and dry-aged fish pioneer Liwei Liao gave a few VIPs a quick tour of the 4,000-square-foot space.
“We thought it was going to be 3x,” Liao told Observer when asked about the amount of fish he can now offer to his restaurant clients and retail customers.
Tripling his capacity would be a major accomplishment, but it turns out that Liao had underestimated.
“It’s going to be 4x, 5x,” Liao said during Monday’s tour. “We were at 4,000 to 5,000 pounds per week. This is pushing 15,000 to 20,000 pounds.”
Guests like Verse chef Oscar Torres and Majordomo Media co-founder Christopher Chen pondered that staggering number as Liao continued to flex like a man who knows he’s changed the game.
“You see that tuna room over there?” Liao asked. “No one in the world is able to hang 350 pounds in any space right now unless they have a forklift. We can do it. How many spots do you see a 400-pound fish hanging? We’ll get to 500 pounds.”
Then Liao walked into the tuna room and spun around a fish that was twice his size as his right-hand man, Josh Ko, looked on with the amusement of someone who knew he would soon have to break down a lot of that tuna.
The new Joint Seafood at 600 E. 1st St. will open around the beginning of April with Liao’s Uoichiba hand-roll bar, a coffee bar and dry-aging chambers that have 14-foot ceilings. The centerpiece at Joint Seafood will be a retail market selling carefully sourced fish like Ōra King salmon, Balfegó tuna and Seremoni smoked black cod, all of which were used to make hand rolls at Monday’s preview party.
In the near future, Liao will have an omakase bar on a 16-foot stage at the new Joint Seafood.
“It’s going to be an omakase stage featuring collaborations with other chefs around the world using our fish,” Liao said.
As always, Liao, who sells fish to restaurants operated by prominent chefs including Wolfgang Puck, Dominique Crenn, Enrique Olvera and José Andrés, is here to remind everyone that “fresh is boring.” He wants the world to know that dry-aging fish clarifies flavors, improves textures and removes impurities.
Liao’s original Joint Seafood in Sherman Oaks, which opened in 2018, is busier than ever. He’s essentially run out of capacity there. So it’s time to make a much bigger bet.
“In 2018, we set out to change the way fish is sold all over the world,” Liao told the crowd on Monday night just before he and his wife, Iris Chen, welcomed everyone with a Dassai sake-barrel breaking ceremony. “This is the next stepping stone to realizing that dream.”
Clearly, the Los Angeles restaurant industry believes in Liao’s dream. At Monday night’s party, Damian’s Chuy Cervantes made tacos with dry-aged barramundi while 626 Hospitality Group’s Amber Tan and Waldo Yan topped their salted yuzu sorbet with caviar. Yang’s Kitchen’s Christian Yang showcased his new Joimo kombucha brand.
Anajak Thai’s Justin Pichetrungsi walked into the event with Majordomo Media co-founder Noelle Cornelio, while Kato’s Jon Yao checked out Damian’s outdoor taco setup. Chefs and operators from Jitlada, Steep L.A., Antico Nuovo, Jade Rabbit, Avi Cue, Flouring, Cobi’s, Casa Vega and Redbird circulated as content creators Nigel Ng and Celine Linarte chatted at the hand-roll bar (presented by inKind, which has helped fund the expansion of Joint Seafood). NextShark founder Benny Luo and Hedley + Bennett founder Ellen Marie Bennett surveyed the scene while Saffy’s general manager Nick Sasto had a moment with music industry power couple Orly and Ziggy Marley.
Torres considered Joint Seafood’s new capacity and what this would mean for Verse and many other restaurants. Then, perhaps in an attempt to get preferred allocations at Verse, Torres heaped high praise on Liao.
“He’s the greatest fishmonger of our generation,” Torres said. “Luckily, he’s not a gatekeeper.”
That’s the thing about Liao. He wants to change the way the world’s top restaurants think about fish, but he also happily sells to private chefs and home cooks. He consults for supermarket chains and wants to open hand-roll bars all over the country. A 400-pound tuna is just the beginning of Joint Seafood’s new chapter.