Osteria Sinceritá: In hot spring area, an Italian restaurant born of adversity

The Akayu Onsen area, in Yamagata Prefecture, is home to 11 onsen ryokan (hot spring inns). Unlike typical hot spring towns, at first glance it has the air of a residential neighborhood. Situated in one corner is Osteria Sinceritá, an inn-restaurant (with just three guest rooms) that opened in April 2023 as an annex of the onsen ryokan Yamagata the Takinami. Behind the creation of Osteria Sinceritá is the story of a venerable ryokan that overcame adversity.

The original Takinami was an onsen ryokan founded over a century ago. Facing financial hardship after the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011, the owners eventually applied for civil rehabilitation in order to reorganize and renovate. Toru Iwasa, the designer of Satoyama Jujo in Niigata Prefecture, a Destination Restaurant of 2022, came on board as creative director, and in August 2017, Takinami was reborn as Yamagata the Takinami.

Six years later, Osteria Sinceritá and its restaurant, Stanza della Sinceritá, were built in what was once the location of the inn’s large bath area. For non-staying diners, the dinner menu is priced at ¥33,000 ($220). One night’s stay with two meals ranges from ¥77,000 to ¥110,000.

Prior to joining Osteria Sinceritá, chef Makoto Harada had been earning accolades as owner-chef of the Italian restaurant Il Riposo in the Niigata Prefecture city of Sanjo. At the time of the restaurant’s 10th anniversary, he was making plans to expand into Tokyo, but with the COVID-19 pandemic he decided to give up the project.

“Of course, the pandemic was a factor,” he said, “but as planning progressed, I also felt a certain discomfort about creating cuisine in Tokyo and realized I wanted to work in a regional area after all.” It was then that an offer came from Osteria Sinceritá, and he decided to relocate to Akayu.

When the location changes, so does the cuisine. While Niigata and Yamagata are adjacent prefectures, their culinary cultures are quite different. On today’s gastronomy scene, the practice of modifying local dishes has become widespread — and Harada, too, often draws inspiration from dishes rooted in the Okitama basin, which includes Akayu. An example is Yamagata dashi, made from chopped summer vegetables such as eggplant and cucumber, combined with kombu seaweed. Harada’s version is made with winter vegetables and combined with risotto. He also created a lighter version of imoni, a traditional Yamagata stew made with taro root and meat, preparing it in the style of noppe soup from Niigata Prefecture and serving it for breakfast. While his dishes are Italian, there are strong undertones of Japanese — and specifically Yamagata — cuisine.

Harada was particularly impressed by the food culture disseminated by Harunori Uesugi — the Yonezawa domain daimyo extolled as a wise ruler in the Edo Period — to help people endure severe environmental conditions. Uesugi recommended edible wild plants as emergency provisions in a time of famine, and promoted carp farming (which he is said to have originated in the castle moat) as a secure source of protein in winter. And today, these ingredients appear in new forms in the restaurant’s course menu.

Harada explained: “Niigata is a carp-producing area, too, but most of the carp are the colorful nishikigoi raised as ornamental fish. In this area, people used to build ponds next to their houses and raise carp, and today it’s such a common food that it’s sold in supermarkets.”

Thus, even the humble carp that Harada transforms into splendid cuisine for guests’ enjoyment has a complex history. Visitors to Osteria Sinceritá are sure to be moved by the ingenuity and vitality of Yamagata Prefecture’s people, who have overcome famine, war and disaster and continue to live life to the fullest.

山形県の赤湯温泉に3棟のみのオーベルジュ『オステリア・シンチェリータ』はある。このオーベルジュは温泉旅館『山形座 瀧波』の別館として2023年4月に開業した。元々、『瀧波』は創業100年以上の老舗旅館だったが、2011年の東日本大震災で経営難に陥り、民事再生を申請するに至った。その際、新潟県『里山十帖』（「Destination Restaurants 2022」受賞）を手がけた岩佐十良を迎え、2017年復活を果たす。その後、かつて旅館の大浴場であった場所にオーベルジュ『オステリア・シンチェリータ』ができ、そのレストランが『スタンザデラ シンチェリータ』なのだ。食事だけの利用はディナー¥33,000。1泊2食では¥77,000〜¥110,000となっている。

シェフ原田誠は新潟県三条市でイタリアン・レストランのオーナーシェフとして評価を得ていた。開店10年の節目に東京進出を考えたがコロナ禍で断念。そこに今回の話が舞い込んだ。「やはり地方で仕事をしたいと思い、赤湯行きを決めました」と語る。

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