Indigo Road Hospitality is on a bit of a growth spurt, with plans to open the ninth, 10th, and 11th locations of its modern Japanese concept, O-Ku, over the next year. During that same timeframe the group is planning its seventh location of Indaco, a rustic Italian concept, and its first location of Maru, which will specialize in the Japanese-Peruvian cuisine known as Nikkei.
Indigo Road was founded by restaurateur Steve Palmer in 2005 with the opening of Oak Steakhouse in Charleston, S.C., and it has since grown to 36 restaurants and six hotels throughout the Southeast, including Luminosa, a Southern accented Italian restaurant and the group’s first restaurant in Asheville, N.C., which opened in May.
“As we’ve grown it’s been important for us to have each location feel like it is a locally operated restaurant,” Palmer said.
For the next O-Ku, slated to open in mid-September in Alys Beach, Fla., that has meant hiring a local chef (an offer has been made so news about that should be forthcoming), and décor that reflects the seaside community.
“It will have much more of a beach vibe,” Palmer said, including lighter décor and a menu reflecting the grouper, snapper, large prawns, and other Gulf coast seafood as well as local produce.
“We want each chef to have his or her own creativity,” Palmer said, “We think that it creates a better product … the opportunity to work with local farmers, local fishermen, and people in [these communities] can feel, ‘this is our O-Ku.’”
Although that makes the restaurants a bit more difficult to operate than a more standardized chain, “I think it ultimately makes for a better experience,” he said.
“All of our concepts are based on my travels, my passions, my lightbulb moments with food, and I remember in 2006 I was at the original Nobu in Tribeca [in New York City], and the server came over and I said, ‘Hey, I’ve never eaten here before. Why don’t you pick the food for me?’ She brought nine plates, and not one of them was a sushi roll. I was like ‘holy crap,’” Palmer said. Although he had been in the restaurant business since he was 13 years old, he said that moment opened his eyes to the possibilities of modern Japanese cooking, and he knew that nothing like that existed in Charleston, where he had been working since he was 20 years old.
That was his lightbulb moment for the first O-Ku, which opened in Charleston four years later.
“I’ve traveled to Japan. I love Japanese culture, I think Japanese hospitality is second to none, and I was just really fascinated [to think], what would this look like in the South?”
The answer has been to develop relationships with the local fisherman and farmers and treat each southern locale as if it were in Japan.
“It enabled us to take our spin on what modern Japanese is,” Palmer said.
There are some greatest hits that multiple O-Ku locations share, and O-Ku’s culinary director, Masatomo “Masa” Hamaya, oversees all of the locations, but Palmer said the chefs are given relative freedom to make the menus their own.
“He’s connecting with the local purveyors, connecting with the produce and things that will be available,” Palmer said of Hamaya. “He certainly allows the chef to write the menu, but he’s there to guide, assist, teach. Masa really gives us a sense of where he thinks the menu will go and then he’s there during the opening working side-by-side with the executive chef to offer any assistance. He’s a good way-shower, if you will.”
O-Ku locations are more lively and approachable than some of the trendy high-end omakase restaurants that have been opening in recent years, Palmer said. Average checks are around $50 to $60 per person, “and we have a really vibrant cocktail program,” he said.
With so many Southeastern communities having strong food heritage, Palmer said it makes sense to treat them all with respect.
“It’s being a student, and listening and learning and paying attention,” Palmer said.
“When we go into a new market, especially [ones] like Asheville, Austin, New Orleans, Charleston, these are towns that have such a strong sense of place that I think to go in with, ‘Oh, here’s Indaco and it’s its sixth location.’ Sometimes that’s perfectly appropriate, but I thought for Asheville [and Luminosa] we really needed to hire a local chef, Graham House, who’s phenomenal, and he’s sourcing almost 100% Asheville ingredients.
“It connects us much more to the community.”
Palmer said he has had his eyes on Alys Beach, the location of the next O-Ku, for five years.
“It’s kind of like, if you know you know, one of those places,” he said: On the panhandle, west of Panama City, “with stunning architecture, beach homes, an established seaside community.”
“I think it has a completely different feel than the rest of Florida. I think it has a more authentic feel.”
Additionally, the city is booming: People from Birmingham, Nashville, and Atlanta, who had second homes there, have moved there permanently in the aftermath of COVID.
Once that O-Ku is open, Palmer will turn to Tampa, where the next O-Ku will open on the ground floor of an eight-story building and Maru, the Nikkei restaurant, will open on the rooftop. That will be followed by another O-Ku in West Palm Beach, Fla., and an Indaco in Nashville in 2025.
Contact Bret Thorn at [email protected]
