West End’s Japanese makeover: Izakaya reimagines the gastropub

At the end of June, West End Tap & Kitchen, a 10-year-old restaurant operating seven days a week in the heart of Santa Cruz’s buzzy Westside neighborhood, quietly closed for a few days. It never reopened. 

Instead, when it welcomed guests back on June 20, the restaurant relaunched as Izakaya West End, with an entirely new Japanese-inspired concept and menu. The flatbreads, meat and cheese boards, duck fat popcorn and the rest of its American fare is gone. It’s still a gastropub – loosely translated, “izakaya” means “pub” – with shareable appetizers, large salads and hearty mains, but now draws from Japanese culinary traditions and flavors. There’s no sushi, but a raw section offers intriguing takes on sashimi, fresh oysters and carpaccio-like beef tataki.

The restaurant’s sudden departure from its established concept shocked longtime customers, some of whom shared their surprise on social media, where word of the transformation slowly leaked out. But chef Geoff Hargrave, who owns Izayakya and East End Gastropub in Capitola with business partner Quinn Cormier, said the idea to change had been brewing for years. 

“I feel that the modern American gastropub concept is diluted. Not that it’s not great, but there’s just a lot of it around,” says Hargrave. “Quinn and I felt that the bigger risk was staying the same. That was risky, and trying to rest on our laurels that we had built over the years was very risky, too.”

Despite its success, the owners wanted to breathe life into their restaurant, and inspire themselves and their staff with new ideas, they say. “We never thought about changing West End because it was such a successful place, and why would we change it? But the restaurant’s been there for 10-plus years, and just as restaurant people, we wanted to see a change in our own space,” says Cormier. 

Cormier has Japanese heritage – her family immigrated from Japan to Watsonville at the turn of the last century – and Hargrave spent the first eight years of his restaurant career working in Japanese kitchens, so drawing from that culinary landscape felt natural, he says.

At the same time, they didn’t want to alienate their longtime customers. “It was really important that we didn’t abandon or disenfranchise any people who have been coming here for 10 years,” says Hargrave, who designed many of the new main dishes with a nod to the old West End. 

The list includes a 12-ounce prime rib ($48) with mashed potatoes and whiskey barrel-aged shoyu, a double patty wagyu smash burger ($16) and Japanese-style karaage fried chicken ($28) with gochujang maple syrup, as well as several large entree salads. The sake-don ($32), with a king salmon filet lacquered with black garlic, served with housemade kimchi and an avocado rosette, is a pretty and satisfying dish that, judging by the number I saw arrive at tables, is already on its way to becoming a fan favorite. 

The popular calamari with its many fried slices of jalapeno is the only West End dish that made the transition to Izakaya, now with the addition of a sweet and spicy gochujang dipping sauce. None of the other dishes made the cut, but it’s hard to miss them in the line up that includes winners like the steamed bao ($23), four smooth, pillowy buns stuffed with thick slices of pork belly, crispy shallots, herbs and spicy mayo, and crisp-skinned pockets of tempura inari ($13) filled with shrimp and kani kama, or imitation crab. The whole loaf of golden, glossy hokkaido milk bread ($12), served with cultured butter and honey, could easily keep a table of four occupied over a few beers. 

The list of raw fish, shellfish and beef, offers clever flavor combinations. I slid generous blush-colored slices of hamachi ($22) dotted with kosho, a yuzu and chili-infused salt, through bright, citrusy mandarin juice and sesame oil. West coast oysters ($18/$36) are served with rice vinegar, tart green apple and shiso. 

There are more changes coming. With a new liquor license in hand, a cocktail program designed by Lindsey Eshlemen, the Venus Spirits veteran and creative mind behind many bar programs at local restaurants, will launch later this month. A dessert menu is also forthcoming, and Hargrave hopes to expand the raw bar, and the vegan and vegetarian options. Like West End, Izakaya is open seven days a week for lunch and dinner, and has a spacious, dog-friendly enclosed patio. 

And, Cormier and Hargrave are in the process of opening another restaurant on Soquel Drive near Dominican Hospital called the Tortilla Shack, a fast-casual burrito bar with handmade tortillas with different ingredients and flavorings pressed to order, then filled with a variety of Tex-Mex-inspired fillings. The restaurant is currently under construction and an opening date has not yet been determined. 

After 10 years, West End’s menu was tried and true, but sometimes felt stagnant. Izakaya is lively and exciting, while still being approachable. It’s important to Hargrave to preserve their inspiration to keep things interesting for both themselves and their customers. “As someone who cooks for a living, it’s been really nice having a fresh breath of air, retraining cooks in a different cuisine, exposing them to new things, and getting their curiosity piqued again,” he says. “It’s been really refreshing.”

334 D Ingalls St., Santa Cruz. westendtap.com.