For over two decades, Marc Spitzer has been the Executive Chef of BONDST, one of the most popular and beloved Japanese restaurants in New York City, with locations in both NoHo and Hudson Yards, as well as Bond Street Lounge in Miami.
He’s a graduate of The Culinary Institute of America and after graduation worked at the James Beard Award-winning Le Cirque 2000 at the Palace Hotel, and was on the opening team when the iconic Russian Tea Room reopened in 1999.
Marc has partnered with Noam Shemel, principal of Kano Real Estate Investors, to start Northern & Main Hospitality and open Okaru as their first concept together.
His journey from chef to restaurant owner is a testament to hard work, creativity, and resilience. His story inspires anyone with a dream, proving that with passion and perseverance anything and everything is possible.
Tell our readers what got you interested in the restaurant industry? Walk us through your career track.
I grew up in the restaurant industry. My mother is an amazing self-taught chef who had a restaurant in Queens when I was growing up.
She would run the kitchen and my father would go there after his morning job. I would spend all the holidays and busy days there and it was from the both of them that I really learned about work ethic and the industry. My mother truly loves cooking and her passion was contagious.
What do you love about running a kitchen and restaurant serving Japanese cuisine?
Cooking is truly a team sport. We as chefs can create many things but ultimately, it’s not us cooking every dish. I think teaching and then seeing people flourish and really love what they do is the best part for me. To see that moment when it just clicks and they get it.
The flow, the food, enjoying the process. Being classically French trained, I fell in love with Japanese food for its ‘simplicity’ yet complexity all at the same time and how dependent it was on the ingredients. Just trying to get the best product and not mess it up.
What’s your approach to creating the dishes?
I always try to create dishes that have balance. Salty, sour with a tiny bit of sweetness and as much umami as I can get in there. Linda Rodriquez, one of my previous chefs, was a true master at this.
I try to make dishes that people will crave and bring them back. Trying not to focus on dishes that are perceived as precious that are great but don’t necessarily leave you wanting more.
You received rave reviews at BONDST in NYC, why did you choose to open Okaru in Roslyn, NY?
As a native Long Islander, I have made the daily commute to the city for over 25 years. I’ve always wanted to bring what we did in the city out to Long Island. As a partner in BONDST, I will always have my hand in the day to day, but for now just focusing on getting Okaru to what I know it could be as far as the food and service.
We just want the guests to leave having an amazing experience from start to finish in a beautiful warm environment.
How is the cuisine different at Okaru from BONDST?
The food and ethos of Okaru will be pretty similar to what I have done at BONDST. I will be focusing on as much local produce and seafood as possible when in season, but we opened at the end of January, so just getting into it but looking forward to the warmer months.
We also plan on having a greenhouse on the roof to grow our herbs and garnishes as much as possible.
At BONDST the cuisine was new Japanese with European and Asian influences. Tell us about the cuisine, the beverage program and what’s on the menu at Okaru.
Coming from a French background I feel that will always be a part of me. I never claim to be a traditional chef of Japanese food and honestly, I don’t think that’s what people are looking for when they come in.
I love bringing in different ingredients that wouldn’t normally be on a Japanese menu but to me they make sense. They give that same flavor profile.
Whether it’s using green calamansi from the Philippines in place of Japanese Sudachi for a dish that needs a touch of sweetness, or the occasional addition of classic stocks combined with Asian flavors.
For me it’s about closing your eyes and tasting it and having that balance of flavors and Umami really come out. For the beverage program we wanted to keep that same mentality and try to bring a lot of those same ingredients from the kitchen to the drinks like the shishito peppers and even the shitake dust on the espresso martini.
Tell us about your staff at Okaru.
To help run the sushi bar, I’ve brought out to Long Island the super talented Bryan Yee. We worked together at BONDST for over 14 years and he is absolutely amazing. His work truly speaks for itself, and he thinks like-minded as me. He tries to move forward with the cuisine as well as paying homage to the past.
I have a couple of the chefs in the kitchen who have worked for me in the past and at BONDST, so it is great to have them out here with me as familiar faces.
What’s the vibe at the restaurant? Tell us about the design and designer Carlita Alexander.
When my partner Noam and I decided to go ahead with the project I knew I wanted it to look different than what I had been part of in the past while still having some elements of it. We wanted it to look like nothing else in the area.
I loved visiting Scandinavia for many years and so many of those restaurants just had this warm inviting feeling to them. They always made you feel at home. The design is Japandi which melds that Scandinavian design and Japanese elements.
We had compiled tons of photos of the feel and look we wanted and gave them to Carlita to put the puzzle pieces together and she truly made it come to life while adding so many of her own elements to bring it together. She has such an eye for detail, and I think it shows in the space.
People come and are just wowed by the feel and look. I’ve been collecting Japanese pottery and artwork for many years, so it was nice to be able to incorporate it into the design like the pottery on the shelves near the open kitchen window to the gyotaku fishprints on the wall.
I think the vibe also starts before you even walk into the restaurant. It starts with the drive up to this historic house from the late 1800’s. We added over 3,000 sq feet to the home with just the historic front wall still the original.
Our architect Alan Cooper was really able to design something that had that same feeling we were going for inside on the outside.
Which POS system do you use?
We chose to run Toast at Okaru. I was using it at the Hudson Yards location and it seems to be user friendly and easily manipulated for our needs. We are not the normal appetizer, entrée, dessert sort of place.
It’s a large menu and sometimes a little overwhelming for guests to see at first, so it’s important our waitstaff help them navigate and course out properly.
Tell us about your experience building a kitchen.
It was one of the first times where we really had to start from scratch. We designed the whole building, so it started at the infrastructure which is the first time I have had to be involved with something like that.
Usually, you have this box and you just put the pieces together. This time we designed the box. The kitchen and sushi bar work in tandem so it’s always a little tricky to get the flow right, but I think for service what we have is exactly how I envisioned it.
As far as equipment it’s an open kitchen, so it needed to be nice but a workhorse at the same time. We’ve added a dry ager for a dry aged fish program as well.
I’d say almost all the plateware is from Japan besides the sushi platters and some wood serving pieces that I make myself.
What’s your strategy for the restaurant to drive dine-in, takeout, and delivery business?
I think word of mouth is always the best driving force. Especially in a place like Long Island. That’s why it’s so important and we tell the staff every day, it’s all about the guest experience.
They leave happy, they tell 10 friends. But if they leave unhappy, they tell 20 friends. For now, we are only focusing on dine-in, but in the future will include some catering as well as take out.
What’s your recipe for success? Share your tips and suggestions, best practices with our readers.
It’s cliché but for me it was always about working hard. Putting in the hours and building a team that wants to work next to you. I’m on the line every night with them so I think that helps motivate and have people want to work hard as well.
I’m a strong believer in not asking someone to do something I wouldn’t do myself and that could be anything from dish pit to whatever. The main ‘Recipe for Success’ has always been our magic word at BONDST – Consistency.
That’s our main focus and getting a little better day by day. There is no greater compliment then someone coming in and having a signature dish they had years ago and saying it’s the same if not better than they remember. That for us is the highest compliment.
Learn more about Okaru and Chef Marc Spitzer at their website
