Kotora is the Master's counter and his daughter Aya's room. He cooked twenty years in Tokyo — yakitori-ya, kappo, one famous kitchen he won't name — then opened this basement in 2018 with a charcoal grill and forty seats. The little tiger on the lantern is Aya's: she painted it at twelve, and when they opened he hung it by the door without asking her.

The binchotan is lit at four. The strips on the wall are written when the market decides. The tare pot by the grill hasn't been emptied since opening night — you top it up, you never start over. If a dish has a story, tap it — I know most of them.