Masayuki Nishimoto, founder of the Japanese creative agency En One, knew he wanted to develop an experimental culinary space in Tokyo long before he met Ghetto Gastro’s Jon Gray on the street during Art Basel Hong Kong in 2019. His concept for Burnside took shape that week over a dinner hosted by Gray’s team at the restaurant-cum-listening room Potato Head, where Nishimoto sensed an opportunity to connect the Bronx collective and other like-minded creatives with his community back home. Today, this spirit of cross-pollination shines through the finished space. In his mind, Nishimoto says, Burnside is “all about the connection between Jon and myself. I’d always rather work with people I like. That’s all that matters.”

While his multidisciplinary firm offers a sweep of services, including web design, event catering, and music video production, Nishimoto could be described as En One’s chief collaboration officer. He feels called to add value to his Harajuku neighborhood and the adjacent Shibuya ward. Between the two, his company has developed 14 venues for art, culture, and dining. “We consider ourselves curators of cultural infrastructure,” Nishimoto says, going on to note the advice he gives even his most straight-laced real-estate developer clients: “It’s not about the brands you bring in. It’s about the community you create.”

Burnside’s tactile material palette encourages interaction and conversation. Its 30-person dining room features movable ash wood furniture, fabric-lined windows, and amber-hued accents (a reference to the heat of a traditional Japanese grill) that reflect natural light as it changes throughout the day.

Nishimoto deems the venue a “space for manifesting relationships,” and sees its flexible interior—which can easily transition from a café to a lounge, or from a dining room to a dance floor, to accommodate a broad range of pop-up events—as a way to introduce Tokyo to new people and ideas. “It’s important to elevate others by exposure,” he says. “That’s what Burnside is all about: bringing in cool people to mix it up with the locals.”