Listen to article \u2022\u00a00:00 min<\/p>\n
After 25 years in restaurant kitchens around Philadelphia, Ryo Igarashi was burned out. He left the business, started driving for Uber, and kept thinking about a different kind of restaurant: a tiny place he could largely run himself.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Japan, a one-man operation is a real thing,\u201d he said. \u201cYou\u2019ll have ramen shops and little places where one person basically runs everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
That idea became Panco, the Japanese comfort-food takeout spot Igarashi soft-opened last weekend in West Passyunk. The kitchen is tiny, and the operation is deliberately lean, with his daughter, Maya, a high school senior, working the counter.<\/p>\n
Igarashi wants to see what catches on from his yoshoku-style<\/a> menu before expanding. \u201cI don\u2019t want to become that person who just keeps adding more and more because we can sell more,\u201d he said. \u201cI really want to test the market.\u201d<\/p>\n There\u2019s cold octopus sunomono marinated in sanbaizu<\/a>, fried jumbo shrimp, and crab cream croquettes with demi-glace to start. Then there\u2019s katsu<\/a>, Japan\u2019s adaptation of the cutlet: At Panco, chicken, pork loin, or soy-marinated eggplant and tofu are breaded in house-made panko. Igarashi serves them plain, or as katsu curry, with vegetable miso, rice, and pickles; katsu-don, over eggs and rice; or katsu Parmesan, essentially a Japanese take on chicken parm. (This is South Philly, after all.) Mains top out at $22, while appetizers run about $10.<\/p>\n Dessert is flan with caramel, candied sourdough crumb, and Chantilly \u2014 essentially purin<\/a>, Japanese pudding.<\/p>\n Panco had been in Igarashi\u2019s head since the pandemic, but his restaurant career goes back to 2001. The Tokyo-born Igarashi moved from Seattle to Philadelphia and enrolled at Community College of Philadelphia. He knocked on the door at Hikaru in Queen Village looking for work, starting as a dishwasher before moving up in the kitchen.<\/p>\n His resum\u00e9 eventually included Raw, Fuji Mountain, Distrito, Amada<\/a>, Morimoto<\/a>, and Laurel. At Distrito and Amada, he learned high-volume cooking; at Morimoto and Laurel, he moved further into technique and fine dining. His last major job was as executive sous chef at the thousand-seat Liberty Point<\/a> on Penn\u2019s Landing.<\/p>\n Panco is intentionally the opposite: small menu, small kitchen, small staff. Igarashi said he wants to bring the same deliberateness to a restaurant category that often gets the short shrift.<\/p>\n \u201cIn Japan, takeout food is a really well-established market,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m trying to bring some of that idea here.\u201d<\/p>\n Panco, 2300 S. Croskey St., pancophilly.com<\/a>. Hours: 2 to 8 p.m. Thursday to Saturday. Check instagram.com\/pancophiladelphia<\/a> for updates.<\/p>\n