Yuichi Iida

Brooklyn, NY

🍽️ Food & BeverageFull-Service Restaurants

“I spent years immersed in music, culture, and food around the world. Warude is where it all landed.”

What I've Built

About

I came to Brooklyn from Japan to study music. Years of traveling, playing, and exploring food across cultures shaped the way I think about eating, community, and where the two intersect. Traveling in Mexico, I learned that Japanese immigrants helped shape Baja California fish tacos, and Lebanese immigrants influenced al pastor. Food as cultural exchange — the same way music works. That history became the foundation of Warude. My wife Hiroko and I opened the first location in Bed-Stuy in 2018 with no restaurant experience. We learned everything as we went. When COVID hit, I needed to improvise. I built an outdoor pickup area to keep serving customers, and brought in musician friends who needed gigs — they played live, created an atmosphere that kept people coming, and helped drive sales when everything else was uncertain. It kept the business alive and made Warude feel like what it was always meant to be. Opening our Crown Heights location was the hardest chapter. A high-rise construction project right outside our door brought years of dust, noise, and lost foot traffic. We were in the red. We held on, added a dining area when the space finally opened up, and rebuilt slowly. We're back in the green now. Eight years of building something real without a traditional playbook. If you're approaching your business from a creative angle, navigating the uncertainty of a second location, or just trying to survive something completely outside your control — I've done all of it.

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