You won’t often catch me enjoying sweet potato and mayo on my pizza, but I do get excited when skewed foreign incarnations of American fast foods slingshot back to the States—as they have at the purveyor of the aforementioned delicacy, the chain Cheogajip/Pizza and Chicken Love Letter, whose wild success in South Korea prompted it to stake out a toehold in a Niles strip mall in early 2008. But even more than straight versions of ethnic cuisine, these hybrids seem to have a hard time attracting customers outside the target immigrant community.
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Four and a half months ago, when 37-year-old graphic designer Masaru Wachi opened Gabutto Burger, his Japanese-style burger stand in the Mitsuwa Marketplace food court, he was banking on an audience wider than Japanese expats to develop a yen for a very particular style of burger.
Wachi’s patties come doused with one of two sweet sauces: teriyaki or, for the standard Gabutto burger, a proprietary demi-glace “prepared slowly over a small flame,” according to the menu.
