How Highland Park’s Ine Redefines the Neighborhood Bistro, In Five Dishes
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While there’s no shortage of great restaurants along the York Boulevard strip in Highland Park, the modern, intercontinental bistro Ine has already endeared itself to the neighborhood by carving out an identity all its own. In lieu of steak frites and onion soup, chef-owner Terry Park, who opened Ine last January, artfully composes dishes with a distinct Japanese sensibility, braided with French and Italian twists (think: monkfish liver toast and mushroom ravioli made with noodle sheets).
Inside, high-top chairs line a bar around the open kitchen, resembling a sushi counter, though there is no sushi. Old Japanese films are projected on a side wall in a small square above one of the tables. Tiny trinkets line the countertops and lanterns are strung above the outside patio.
The cosmopolitan menu Park devised is overseen by chef de cuisine Ethan Mai, who worked at French Californian bistro Pasjoli, and chef de partie Jude Shin, of Italian restaurant Hearts & Flame. With Park’s sister, Soohyun, managing the front of house and his mother, Eunjoo Kim, working alongside the team in the kitchen, Ine is truly a family affair.
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The family emigrated from Korea together nine years ago, but their food journey began long before. Both Terry and Soohyun have had severe food allergies and sensitivities since childhood, prompting Eunjoo to cook practically all their meals at home. The Parks ate a diet low in sodium with no artificial ingredients, which meant a lot of raw, unseasoned meals, and no convenience foods whatsoever.
Terry’s limitations, however, did not dampen his enthusiasm for food, and his inclination towards milder flavors led him to develop a sharp palate. Park’s ability to sense the essence and nuance of every ingredient informs his cooking, ensuring that freshness is at its core. His constraints have become his strength, as he approaches every dish with admirable restraint, letting painstaking technique and layered textures take center stage.
Let’s take you through Ine through five dishes:
Sweet potato uni
In this salty-sweet appetizer, lobes of briny sea urchin rest on a sweet potato puree, complimentary in flavor as their burnt orange colors blend into one another. Underneath, a crumble of butter biscuits brings out the savory, while a dollop of sour cream on top adds a touch of acidity. The result is a complex, composed little bite on each spoonful.
Park, once a purist who only “liked uni by itself,” eventually came to appreciate combining it with other elements. “I truly believe that the joy of going to a restaurant is having a new experience of the same food,” he says. Even Soohyun and Eunjoo, who don’t typically care for uni, enjoy it here. Served in a custom ceramic martini glass, this dish is one of Ine’s top sellers.
Crispy rice
Park rewrites the script when it comes to both tuna handrolls and the fried crispy rice bites we’ve seen at many Japanese and fusion restaurants. He uses fresh (not leftover) sushi rice and takes inspiration from the snappy kimbap roll at Jungsik in New York. Sheets of nori are oven-dried, lacquered with a layer of rice blended with stock, dried a second time, and then wrapped around a cylindrical mold and deep-fried into a tube. The center is filled with tuna, radish pickles, and cucumbers, and the roll arrives at the table extra crispy.
The rolls are served with a garlic chive aioli for dipping—a refreshingly different approach to this hybrid of dishes. The light green sauce is in lieu of traditional wasabi, mayo topping, or spicy tuna seasoning.
Toro hand roll
There are about ten handrolls on offer at Ine, each furnished with their own thoughtful accoutrements, and the toro is no exception. “I’m not doing sushi because I respect Japanese history and legacy, so instead I’m doing open-hand temaki with different combinations,” says Park. “With toro, you always see it with wasabi or simple scallions on top, so I wanted to play with it.” Blistered capers recall Italian crudo, while yuzu mustard is used for acidity and aromatics instead of wasabi. Chives add color and crispness to top it all off.
Notably, all the handrolls are served in custom ceramic holders that were made by a family friend in Korea, as are all the other ceramic pieces used at Ine. The fillings arrive on a flat wand, cradled in a sort of ceramic taco, separate from the square nori sheets, which arrive in their own ceramic business card holder. This allows diners to assemble each handroll at their own pace, ensuring crisp nori with every bite.
Of the one-of-a-kind ceramic pieces, Park speaks of the principle of wabi-sabi: “It’s perfection within imperfection in Japanese art form. We could use these wooden stands that are very affordable, but my mom was an art major, and I like the wabi-sabi aesthetic.”
Ine noodles
Park wanted to serve a bowl of noodles in broth that was comforting but not as heavy or salty as ramen. “Normally with ramen, there are three layers: The broth, seasoning oils, and toppings,” he says. “We make a broth with the bones of blackhead sea bream, which has a lot of fat, so you don’t need the seasoning oils.”
The thin, but not-too-thin, noodles are the result of extensive testing—the kitchen tried 12 different noodles of varying thicknesses and textures before arriving at the right one. They considered “how much the broth clings to the noodles” and eliminated those that absorbed too much, too quickly, says Park.
Inspired by kitsune udon on a trip to Kyoto, Park also decided to add folds of poached tofu skin as the main topping, for a bit of sweet, chewy texture. The result? A delicate but complex bowl that’s as nourishing as it is delicious.
Kurodai steak
Kurodai, or blackhead seabream, is not typically considered a premium fish in Japan, where it was once overabundant. “Back in the day, it was a fish for poor people,” says Park. But that doesn’t have anything to do with its palatability.
“We cook it on top of charcoal with the skin side down, so it melts the layer of fat between the meat and the skin,” says Park. “I wanted to have at least one rich dish.” Mai had an idea to create a beurre blanc sauce for it, but Park wondered how they might make it a bit more Japanese, so they blended the butter with a shio kombu powder, and infused their kurodai stock with gamtae, or wild Korean seaweed.
Park’s fondness for putting a shine on overlooked ingredients like kurodai is indicative of the restaurant’s ethos. “I’m not trying to do fine dining,” he says. “I just want to make good food at a reasonable price, so everyone can visit.”
