Hiro Asian Kitchen in Downtown West now closed

Owner Bernie Lee decided not to renew the restaurant's lease at 1405 Washington.

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Hiro Asian Kitchen, the six-year-old Asian fusion restaurant at 1405 Washington, closed its doors after brunch service on Mother’s Day. Owner Bernie Lee says his lease was expiring and while he loved his customers and appreciated the opportunity to service the Downtown West neighborhood, he opted not to renew for an additional term.

Lee says he preferred a measured, focused closure rather than a long, protracted one. “If you publicize [the closure] ahead of time, you run into both staffing and inventory issues," he says. "The level of volume is unpredictable and all across the board. Closing unannounced, on Mother’s Day, we knew the exact amount of food and staff to have on hand.”

In many ways, Hiro Asian Kitchen was a local trendsetter. It was Lee who introduced poke to St. Louis before the craze hit town but reluctantly took it off the menu because the spiced raw fish dish didn’t sell. (Ironically, he reintroduced poke last year at Hiro Poke Co., in The Eatery food hall on the ground floor of the Metropolitan Square building. "My timing is better this time," he quipped. "Our kiosk there is doing well.")

Lee's interpretations of ramen also appeared on Hiro’s menu several years before any local noodle shops opened. Malaysian comfort food was a staple as well. It crossed paths with American classics during Sunday brunch, when guests could order fried chicken atop matcha waffles and the Hiro Slinger (with bulgogi beef, tater tots, spicy cheese sauce, and an over-easy egg).

To its detriment, Hiro’s stealthy street presence gave no indication of the whimsy within. In a prior article, SLM called “Bernie Lee’s little gem at 1405 Washington the restaurant equivalent of a geode, or maybe a gnarly oyster—one with a big, fat pearl inside.”

At the entry was an installation of AstroTurf designed “to bring the outside inside,” according to Lee. Brightly colored soup bowls live in recessed cubbies under a row of knotty-pine booths. A row of Beijing opera masks line the opposite wall. Rattan lights at different heights slowly sway above, like anemones bobbing in the sea.

Over the years, Lee enlisted the services of Leon Augustus Braxton Jr. (who recreated the eponymous Miss Leon’s fried chicken) and chef Malou Perez Nievera (who introduced Filipino dishes, as well as the popular kamayan dinners, where guests negotiate table-length spreads in hand-to-mouth combat).

Previously, in 2011, Lee transformed his 609 Restaurant & U Lounge (609 Eastgate in the Loop) into Hiro, a hip sushi and izakaya joint—only to close it a year later, when the building was sold. In early 2013, Lee altered the concept and opened Hiro Asian Kitchen on the burgeoning blocks of Washington Avenue west of Tucker, where Rosalita’s and Blondie’s had previously opened.

Diners who never visited Hiro missed out on wonderful food and singular experiences. (We fondly remember a massive whole red snapper, cross-hatched, roasted, and presented on a colorful platter.)

Recently asked if another project is in the works, Lee shrugged and smiled, as if to say, “You never know.”

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