The restaurant Cassava has lived many lives in its decade-plus time in San Francisco. First opening in 2012, chef Kris Toliao and partner Yuka Ioroi lured diners to its foggy Outer Richmond neighborhood with the promise of Japanese breakfast. The duo then expanded to dinner, navigated masking issues in 2020, and later moved to an entirely new neighborhood in 2022, bringing modern California cuisine and, eventually, Parisian nouveau bistro food to North Beach. In November 2024, however, the couple closed the doors to their Columbus Avenue space. Now they’ve returned with a new cafe in Jackson Square that opened on Tuesday, January 14.
Located in the courtyard of an office building, surrounded by luscious green plants, the new Cassava has a different menu than the North Beach restaurant, but in some ways, the latest iteration is a throwback to those early Richmond days. “The original concept is that we wanted to expand on our Japanese identity,” she says. “The Japanese breakfast is very popular, so we wanted to definitely have things around, like Japanese konbini-inspired sandwiches.”
What that means is a trio of sandwiches on fluffy Japanese milk bread provided by Andersen Bakery, such as the classic grab-and-go staples egg salad and tuna salad made with Kewpie mayo. The third offering is a turkey and cheese made with Golden Gate Meat Company turkey with the added zing of a Calabrian chile spread. All sandwiches come with a side of potato salad. Also on that Japanese milk bread are variations of an open-faced avocado toast, with add-ons like smoked salmon or prosciutto. Soup is available by the cup or bowl, such as the seasonal, vegan butternut squash soup, plus chicken noodle and white bean options. There are also grab-and-go salads, pastries from Andersen, a coffee menu made with beans from Ritual Coffee Roasters, plus matcha and chai from Aroma Tea Shop, for a pick-me-up in the morning and early afternoon.
The po’-tama onigirazu Cassava
But what Ioroi is most excited about are the onigirazu, a Japanese snack similar to seaweed-wrapped onigiri, but served “open” and more sandwich-like. Toliao has two versions on the menu: the po’-tama, which is modeled after the popular Okinawan specialty, and a vegan teriyaki version. The po’-tama is a portmanteau of pork tamago (egg) onigiri, and Toliao’s version comes with a slice of Spam made in-house, a folded omelet, lettuce, and Korean namul-style pickled bean sprouts and carrot. The included rice is also a bit different, Ioroi says, with Japanese rice mixed with sesame oil and sea salt, inspired by the rice used in kimbap. The vegan option is instead made with a tofu-chickpea loaf dressed in teriyaki sauce, rice, and the pickles (but minus the egg). Already, Ioroi says local foodies are excited about the item, and if it catches on, the couple wants to incorporate different versions of it later on.
The new cafe has barely been open for three weeks, but already there are plans to expand the menu. Following the restaurant’s initial closure in North Beach, Toliao transitioned to working at chef Dominique Crenn’s restaurant Atelier Crenn, in addition to spearheading the menu at Cassava. But now, Ioiroi shares that Toliao will be at the cafe full-time, and they’re already plotting some new additions to the menu that should hit in mid-February. At the top of the list is hayashi rice, which Ioroi calls “an homage to yoshoku food culture.” Yoshoku refers to Japanese cuisine with Western influences; hayashi rice in particular is a rice plate with a tomato- and cream-based gravy poured on the side, like a demi-glace sauce. Toliao is working on a veganized hayashi rice, Ioroi says, a nice warming dish during the winter. “In Balboa, our meatball curry was really popular, so we wanted to have a gravy rice type of lunch again.”
While everything is takeout for now, Ioroi says they are in discussions to add a few tables to their outdoor courtyard, allowing diners to pause for that bite of po’-tama or soup, or maybe to open on a weekend down the line.“We really want this to work and then be a foundation for our new restaurant in the future,” Ioroi says. “We have to put our 1,000 percent in.”
Still, it doesn’t hurt that the new cafe has a plant-filled, IYKYK feel to lure in diners for exceptional Japanese bites. “It’s super cute,” Ioroi says. “It is like a literal, courtyard oasis in a concrete jungle. It’s kind of romantic!”
Cassava (One Jackson Place, 633 Battery Street, Suite 130) debuted on January 14 and is open 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m, Monday through Friday.
Cassava
Cassava
AloJapan.com