Bon Yagi isn’t Osaka’s latest Bon Jovi cover band. He’s the “mayor of Japantown” who quietly owns, oh, pretty much every Japanese joint in the East Village: Robataya, Decibel, the list goes on.

After a quiet test run last week, he’ll open Hi-Collar tomorrow in the old Rai Rai Ken space (another Yagi venture, now relocated two doors down). The bar-cafe is a slim portal to Japan’s jazz, or “Taisho,” era, when western fashion and food first made inroads – up to a point.
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