A Table Down the Street: The Hand Roll Show

Howie Southworth visits sushi restaurant Pak Soil Izakaya in Alexandria.

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Food & Dining

“A Table Down The Street” follows Howie Southworth, author of "A Taste of Alexandria," one local barstool at a time. No reviews. Only encounters. The bartender chasing perfection, the chef with a story, the regular who swears this place was better before you found it. Food and drink may be the excuse. People are the point. A corner seat can tell you everything.

Mount Vernon Avenue is still quiet when I push open the door at Pak Soii Izakaya. I arrive early on purpose.

At sushi counters, the magic tends to tense as the room fills. Rolls start flying off the cutting board, orders stack up, and the choreography speeds up. But for a few minutes before the rush, you can watch the whole operation come to life. I come for the unfiltered magic.

Inside, the counter sits nearly empty. A whole yellowtail rests on the cutting board while two chefs begin the slow work of breaking it down. Long clean strokes of the knife. Pink flesh separating from bone. The quiet confidence of someone who has done the same slice thousands of times. The kind of work that draws attention and an audience. 

In most rooms my attention drifts outward. The tables, the chatter, the quiet rituals. Here, it stays fixed on the counter. The work won’t let you look away.

In these vaunted seats, the staff quickly become your company whether you planned it that way or not. My bar guy introduces himself as Chai. “Like the tea,” he says immediately, before I even ask. He explains he’s terrible at remembering names. “Chai is easy for everyone.”

He nods toward the chefs working through the fish. “They’re the best,” he says. “They take it serious.” Then he leans slightly closer. “And the hand rolls here. Those are insane.” 

Soon another voice joins the conversation. Jay appears next to me at the bar just long enough to scan the room. He and his partner Nan run Pak Soii and Gin Ramen across town. Two Alexandria shrines to Japanese cooking. Jay and Nan are Thai. Their devotion to Japanese food, however, is absolute.

Jay and I know each other well enough that the conversation skips the pleasantries. He studies the menu in front of me, then looks up with the expression of someone who already knows what kind of lunch I’m here for. Jay has a soft spot for fellow food obsessives.

“Everyone has hand rolls now,” he says. “But we like to push it a little over the top.” He taps three items on the menu. Bluefin otoro with sea urchin roe and beluga caviar. Seared eel with foie gras, eel sauce, balsamic glaze, and crispy seaweed tempura. Lean bluefin tuna marinated in soy with oshinko and truffle pâté.

“Take a risk,” Jay says. Then, just as quickly as he arrived, he slips away to let the counter do its work. For a moment the room settles back into the calm rhythm of knives on fish and the low murmur between Chai and the chefs. Jay’s right. The hand roll here isn’t just a format. It’s the point of view.

Then the door opens again. A couple takes two seats down the bar. Someone wanders in from the sidewalk and pauses just long enough to scan the menu before committing to a table by the window. The quiet before the storm doesn’t last long at a sushi counter. The chefs fall into a rhythm. Nori portioned. Rice pressed. Fish placed with purpose across the top. 

Hand rolls are an experience unto themselves. They arrive one at a time and demand immediacy. In a small wooden cradle like a carefully engineered object, the first one slides in front of me. Otoro. Uni. Caviar. 

“Eat it right away,” Chai insists. The reason becomes obvious on the first bite. The nori cracks cleanly between the teeth. A sharp, satisfying crunch that disappears almost instantly as warm rice and cold fish take over. Some foods punish hesitation. Hand rolls are one of them.

Watching the counter fill, I find myself scanning the room for it. Who’s going to take the risk. Most sushi bars see people turn toward the familiar. Nigiri, maybe a California roll, miso soup, potstickers, almost guaranteed. Delicious, expertly crafted, and entirely understandable. But these hand rolls. It’s another thing. 

Across the room someone debates whether to play it safe with an avocado maki or gamble with spicy tuna maki. Another diner points to my first hand roll, wonders and commits. I look up, a little pleased. Someone else is taking the leap. 

My next hand roll slides across to me. This one, seared eel, foie gras, crispy tempura nori. A textural wonderland. Equal parts meaty, creamy, and crunch. A combination that sounds borderline reckless until it lands on the tongue, and suddenly perfectly sensible.

Chai returns with a small glass of dry sake. “Good with the fish,” he says. He’s right. The sake clears the palate just enough to prepare for the next bite. My last roll slides into place. Lean tuna, pickled radish, truffle paté. Seems tame after my first two. Still equal parts adventure and calm. 

Behind the counter the chefs continue their quiet choreography. Cut. Assemble. Hand off. Across the bar someone finally orders that spicy tuna. But not maki roll, not today. A hand roll. “Can’t go wrong,” Chai says to the guy. And he’s right. A place where curiosity gets rewarded.

By the time I step back onto Mount Vernon Avenue, the counter behind me is humming. Rolls sliding across the bar, nori cracking, someone leaning forward for their first bite. More eaters taking the atypical plunge. Pak Soii serves twelve signature hand rolls in addition to the traditional ones. 

I tried three. Which leaves nine more on the list. Reasonable problem to have. This is going to take a while.

Howie Southworth is a seasoned denizen of Old Town Alexandria and the best-selling author behind "A Taste of Alexandria: Modern Restaurant Recipes That Echo Our City's Past," published by Alexandria Living Magazine.

Southworth is also the author of a new book, Hemingway’s Spanish Table (Insight Editions), released March 17. 

Past works include "Chinese Street Food," "One Pan to Rule Them All," "Kiss My Casserole!" and "How to Cook Anything in Your Dutch Oven." Howie is also a regular essayist for Salon.com.

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