After a splashy start in 2005, sultry restaurant-lounge 808 Kapahulu, which served a luscious chicken-pot pie, yuzu spaghetti and herbed lamb chops, quietly closed its doors last year. Now taking over its space is Shigezo. Part of a 160-restaurant chain in Japan, it's the first overseas outpost.

Run by first-time restaurateurs Kazuhiro and Ayumi Maruko, Shigezo has kept 808 Kapahulu's space intact — the velvety brown banquette is still there — but has pumped up the lighting. The once darkly ambient space is now bright and perky.

Behind the sushi counter is Shozo Yama, who, after working in California, landed at Kenichi on the Big Island. A new-wave sushi spot that originated in Aspen, the Hawai'i location is in the Keauhou Shopping Center, surrounded by cookie-cutter housing developments. Yama found it "boring." When Shigezo came a-calling, he made the jump to O'ahu.

Yama is obviously doing his own thing — I doubt the Shigezos in Tokyo have a "tofu kalua cake" on their menus. It's a baseball of pork and tofu wrapped in a thick strip of bacon and topped with diced pineapple, basil and onion salsa. That's what the restaurant's tag line of "sushi and tofu fusion" means.

Tofu will be one of the main attractions at Shigezo, which will be making its own soybean curd. But that hasn't happened yet.

Still, one of the best dishes on the menu is the hot tofu sampler, a trio of white dishes, each cradling a fried square of tofu. One gets a kim-chee-mirin sauce, another dashi with daikon and ginger, and the third dashi and shiso. Classic, never-fail flavor combos.

Sliced steak, the classic karaoke-bar pupu, is raised to an art here: super tender rib-eye, crisscrossed with grill marks, topped with an asparagus cross, and bathed in a sake-butter-and-teri sauce.

Yama stuffs his rolls so that the nori can barely contain them. A spider roll bulges with softshell crab. Aside from the usual roll call, and a limited list of nigiri, he also creates a Kapahulu roll — cubes of 'ahi, tofu and avocado wrapped in yuba, a thin tofu skin. The three kinds of creamy are accented with a wasabi-mayo mix and sweet chili sauce.

On one night, perching at the sushi bar meant one was subjected to an endless loop of "Board Stories" projected on the wall, accompanied by an endless loop of Hawaiian music.

Opened just last month, Shigezo is filled with nihonjin, happily taking their time in what is now an amiable neighborhood spot. If you're in Kapahulu, it's a casual alternative to Mr. Ojisan, Irifune and the other standbys.

And with their liquor license just secured, you can now linger over beer, sake and shochu, too.

DINING NEWS

Events: For more than two years Keith Endo reigned as chef de cuisine at Vino Kapalua. With the closing of that restaurant last month, he is now at Vino at Restaurant Row. For an intimate taste of Endo's innovative Italian cooking, Vino will host A Midsummer's Dinner Table at 5:45 p.m. Saturday. Endo is devising a special seasonal four-course menu, and of course master sommelier Chuck Furuya will choose the wine pairings. It's a bargain at $39 per person, not including tax and tip. For reservations, call 533-4476.

Opening: The Kaua'i eatery Puka Dog opened its first O'ahu location in the Waikiki Town Center (2301 Kuhio Ave., 924-7887) on the Fourth of July. A Puka Dog is a Polish sausage or veggie tube in an individual-size loaf with a puka through the middle. You get garlic-lemon "secret sauce" (in four levels of spiciness) and a choice of one of a slew of tropical relishes, such as mango and starfruit.

Closing: Jackie's Kitchen at Ala Moana Center suddenly closed its doors last month.

Reach Lesa Griffith at lgriffith@honoluluadvertiser.com.