Behind door number 1

I was walking around in Ebisu last night and was tickled anew with what's around corners and behind plain doors. Marie and I were looking for a restaurant she had been to. When we got to the rough adobe building with split beams jutting out and straw cowlicks, the windows were dark and the wooden door was dusty. It was a boxy building out of place on a residential street - or any street - in Tokyo. Marie was disappointed - she said inside was a two-story teepee. We walked back towards the station, and passed a lightbox sign in front of a compact six-story building for a rock gym. We walked down the narrow stairs to the basement, and there, in a space about the size that my old NY landlady had crammed three sewing machines and a few piles of fabric, was a rock-climbing gym.
Further down the street was this amazing antiques store, packed and piled high with tin signs, grand cash registers, and threadbare stuffed rabbits and dogs. Everything rattled precariously as we squeezed between the secretaries and teetering stacks of drawers and spice racks and wondered what havoc the slightest earthquake would cause.
Finally we got to a different place for dinner, Tooth Tooth. The lighting was subtle, but the lights were anything but - steel swing arm desk lamps 8 feet tall. The place had everything you'd want in a chic Tokyo restaurant; it was tucked away, French, elegant and moody, and had a private banquet room with ornate brocade thrones and clear Louis Ghost chairs all overseen by a life-size storm trooper (1000 yen per person cover charge in that room, unlimited time). The food was good - we shared a baby lettuce ceasar salad and tender, wine-glazed beef cheek, and spicy fries - and definitely improved by the surroundings. The dessert was intense. An earl grey scented block of dark chocolate fondant drizzled and coddled with raspberry sauce and pistachio icecream and garnished with a sliced strawberry and a free-form butter cookie.
The menu was a challenge. Each item was scrawled small in French and then huge, like magic marker autographs, in Japanese. The waitress said it was hard for everyone to read.
The place is part of chain that started in Kobe and has dozens of restaurants with different names between Tokyo and Osaka. I wonder who's lurking around the banquet tables in the other ones?Tin's Collection: Kaneko Bldg. 101, Ebisu, 3-21-6 Higashi, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, Tel: 03-3499-2291
Tooth Tooth: Tredicasa B1F, 1F, 3-17-12 Higashi, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, Tel: 03.6419.2040