Okonomiyaki Popup OK Yaki Opens as a Restaurant in East Atlanta Later This Year

Okonomiyaki popup OK Yaki become a permanent restaurant later this year in East Atlanta, according to a press release. The restaurant, owned by the popup’s founder Corban Irby, will open in the newly renovated Seville complex on Moreland Avenue, near Hodgepodge Coffeehouse.

Irby lived in Osaka, Japan, ten years ago, where he became interested in okonomiyaki and other Japanese street foods, and has returned over the years to continue his culinary training there at various restaurants.

As for the menu at OK Yaki, it mimics the popular popup, serving Osaka-style street foods like yakisoba noodles, gyoza dumplings, and okonomiyaki, a savory, onion and cabbage-filled griddled pancake topped with meats and okonomi sauce. Irby plans to expand the menu at the restaurant to include other dishes such as karaage Japanese fried chicken and Japanese curry.

Once open, the restaurant will seat 45 people between a 15-seat bar that opens to the kitchen, four booths, and six bar stools along the wet bar in back. OK Yaki should be open five nights a week, from 5 p.m. to 2 a.m., serving food and sake, shochu, whiskey highballs, and Japanese-style draft beers in frozen mugs,

“For the bar, we plan to cut out a window to allow access to a 1000-square-foot patio,” Irby says in the press release, “and we have a few big surprise upgrades in the open kitchen planned for the future.”

Luke Wilkinson - Local Architects

Luke Wilkinson - Local Architects

Luke Wilkinson - Local Architects

Irby will continue popping up at Atlanta breweries and restaurants even after he opens the restaurant. OK Yaki is currently popping up at 97 Estoria in Cabbagetown with a limited takeout menu. “I think it’s really important to continue the hard work of the popups so that we always remember where we came from,” he says.

Eater Atlanta reached out to Irby for more details on OK Yaki, the restaurant.

714 Moreland Avenue SE, Atlanta. okyakiatl.com.