An Revolutionary Sushi Spot From Austin Is Coming to Downtown D.C.

James Beard Award-winning chef Tyson Cole plans to convey his modern Japanese restaurant Uchi to D.C. by late fall 2025. Hai Hospitality’s eighth location of the nationwide restaurant will settle into the modern 17xM, a newly constructed workplace constructing in downtown D.C. (1150 seventeenth Avenue NW).

Cole first opened Uchi in Austin in 2003, taking on a refurbished bungalow that impressed the restaurant’s identify (“home” in Japanese). The upscale sushi spot gained nationwide recognition, occurring to broaden throughout the state with openings in Houston (2012) and Dallas (2015), plus Los Angeles in 2023. It’s additionally on observe to open in NYC. It appears that evidently Uchi is able to tackle the mid-Atlantic, with an upcoming opening in Philly this 12 months as properly. Hai Hospitality’s sibling eating places Uchiko, Uchibā, Oheya, and LORO Asian Smokehouse & Bar are additionally rising throughout Texas and the U.S.

The latest offshoot might be “formed by the vitality and character of its metropolis,” Cole says, utilizing seasonal substances to tell its altering menu. Uchi famously serves loads of sushi and sashimi choices, in addition to skewers and different sizzling dishes cooked over an izakaya-style grill. In accordance with the restaurant group, the District’s location might be usual in a “new modernism” fashion, influenced by each the neighboring Nationwide Geographic Museum of Exploration and acclaimed Hong Kong film Within the Temper for Love, recognized for its cinematic photographs of cramped metropolis areas. The 185-seat restaurant will embody a bar, sushi counter, and two non-public eating rooms.

D.C. already has a robust sushi and omakase scene, with loads of tastings that vary from wagyu-centric Kappo and newly Michelin-starred Omakase @ Barracks Row to a lately introduced omakase program from Michelin-awarded chef Masaaki “Uchi” Uchino at Bar Japonais. We’ll see this fall how the Austin sushi spot’s twenty years of success in Texas and past stacks up towards D.C.’s favourite Japanese spots.

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