Simon Denton opened Kappo, an elegant and intimate Japanese fine diner, in 2014. With room for just 25 people, it offered diners a choice of daily ingredients, as opposed to a regular menu, which chef Kentaro Usami would turn into a degustation menu of between five and nine courses.
Usami recently fell ill forcing Kappo to close (he is recovering, the restaurant announced on its website), so Denton is converting the space into a hotpot joint for winter.
Poppo Uppu will open June 20, with a menu inspired by Japanese nabemono-style dining, where proteins, vegetables and noodles are added at the table to a broth-filled pot.
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Join NowA Hokkaido-style seafood soup with a miso broth base comes with mussels, Coffin Bay oysters and Harvey Bay scallops. The shabu-shabu is a konbu-based broth with wagyu rump, and there’s a vegan-friendly konbu, sake and soy broth packed with silken tofu and shiitake, enoki, shimeji, oyster and king brown mushrooms.
Yosuke Furukawa (Izakaya Den, formerly Nama Nama) will be responsible for the handmade udon noodles.
Drinks will be made courtesy of Denton’s upstairs bar Hihou, with ex-Kappo sommelier Raffaele Mastrovincenzo on hand to guide guests through a concise wine list. There’ll be local and Japanese craft beer, and cocktails, on offer too.
Hihou’s fried chicken will also make a cameo appearance on the snack menu alongside dishes such as spicy edamame and coffee-cured salmon sashimi.
In a way, Poppo Uppu returns the space to its roots – before it became Kappo, it was home to Denton’s noodle restaurant Nama Nama.
Poppu Uppu will open for a limited time from Wednesday June 20.
Poppu Uppu
1 Flinders Lane, Melbourne
(03) 9639 9500
Hours:
Mon to Sat 5pm–10pm
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