The gentrification of Marunouchi continues apace. No longer a staid salaryman ghetto, it has reinvented itself as some of the most sophisticated commercial real estate in the city. The latest arrival in the neighborhood is the sleek steel-and-glass Mitsubishi Trust building, rising high above the venerable prewar brickwork and gabled roofs of the Industry Club of Japan.
It is not the architecture we're excited about, though -- it's the opening of Dean & Deluca. After 25 years tickling the palates of New Yorkers, this self-styled "Museum of Fine Food" has become a Manhattan institution. So it is entirely appropriate that, for its first foray overseas, it should land among the concrete canyons of Otemachi.
Although a fraction the size of the original, it covers all the same bases. Half of the floor area is taken up by a bakery counter overflowing with bread and patisseries. There are shelves piled high with gourmet packaged food, much of it of Italian extraction; a rack of herbs and spices, all in D&D's trademark silver cans; deli cases arrayed with sandwiches, cold cuts, cooked pasta and salads; and a counter serving coffee and tea for sipping on the spot or for takeout.
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