Brian Moy Breaks Down Shojo’s Revamped Menu

All photos by Fawn Deviney for Boston magazine

Just after celebrating its one-year anniversary, Shojo is well on its way toward mixing up the atmosphere in Chinatown. And just as the space has experienced an overhaul, so, too, has the menu. We caught up with co-owner Brian Moy about the new food offerings and what’s up next for his restaurant.

When was the new menu launched? Why did you want to change it up? 
Our menu is always changing. We kind of treat it like software. The version that is live right now is version 2.2. Version 2.0 went live for our one-year anniversary on August 8. We try to keep the menu very seasonal by incorporating fresh and local ingredients.

What has inspired your new menu? 
Well, fresh ingredients play a very large role in our menus. We also sometimes base it on customer reaction. More recently, some of the dishes have had inspiration from my travels. I just got back from a trip to the west coast and I’m sure something from my trip will make into menu version 2.3.

Where are you sourcing the ingredients? 
Getting local and fresh produce is tougher than you’d think. We haven’t had the time to visit as many farms to pick local produce as we would have liked. More and more of our seafood is coming from local fisherman, though. Some days, we’ll just get a few fish from a local fisherman, and it will become our special for the evening. The other day we had sea bass that was fresh off the boat. It went very quickly.

How’s business since your opening last year?
It’s been a steady incline from month to month. It really hasn’t been like a roller coaster. There are a lot of first timers. Which is great, but we are looking to get people to come back. We try not to treat people just as customers, we want to make long lasting relationships.

Do you have any future events scheduled? 
Well we actually just had our second annual pig roast back on the 19th of September. It was a huge success. We changed it up from last year trying to keep things fresh, which I think people really enjoyed. We will also once again be holding our Asian New Year dinner sometime in late January. I will highlight a lot of authentic Asian meals so look out for that. Also, we are finalizing the details on a new brunch that we will hopefully be launching this month. The menu will be available on Saturdays and Sundays and will feature a mix of traditional and Asian breakfast items.