This D.C. Sushi Chef Dramatically Adjustments Omakase to Convey it to the Plenty

After working behind esteemed sushi bars in temple-like omakase spots for over 16 years, chef Masaaki “Uchi” Uchino made the daunting choice to attempt one thing fully new in early 2024: opening an omakase bar in a bustling meals corridor and, later, partnering with a bar to serve pristine sushi programs to bargoers. He referenced a typical saying amongst Japanese cooks to explain this transition: “You be taught till you die.”

Uchino has realized fairly a bit up to now two years, together with working his first-ever enterprise, arising together with his personal sake and wine pairings, and altering his strategy to the technically flawless sushi programs he’s served for 10 years at award-winning Sushi Nakazawa (first in New York, then in D.C.) since he adopted Daisuke Nakazawa (famously skilled by icon Jiro Ono) from Seattle, Washington, to the East Coast.

A harsh actuality hit when he determined to open his personal high-end omakase bar throughout the pandemic. Many D.C. landlords weren’t keen to take an opportunity on a brand new enterprise proprietor in his 40s, at the same time as an esteemed chef with Michelin-starred credentials. In got here Richie Brandenburg and Rubén García, who had recognized Uchino for years by way of business ties and had been closely recruiting him for his or her rising downtown meals corridor, The Sq..

“I feel it’s actually necessary, while you determine expertise, to assist them achieve success,” says Brandenburg. “I like having high quality round. And Uchi is unquestionably high quality.”

Opening up a sushi bar in a bustling meals corridor was not Uchi’s first alternative, particularly as development difficulties landed him in the course of the meals corridor’s primary atrium by a buzzy bar. However even Uchino will admit that he wanted the assist of business veterans that might assist him run the enterprise aspect of his new enterprise. Brandenburg ended up turning into a founding accomplice at Kiyomi, serving to to handle Uchino’s staff and submitting permits, whereas Casa Teresa’s then-manager Alex Munoz helped him with day-to-day difficulties, like issues with reservation apps.

Bar Japonais

“They’re very supportive. And there’s lots of issues that I didn’t know… I spotted it was an excellent choice to make,” Uchino displays. Past constructing his enterprise background, the historically skilled sushi chef discovered that friends within the meals corridor often had little or no expertise with high-end omakase and would even “ask me for a fork and knife.”

As an alternative of the genuine (and considerably inflexible) omakase expertise that he’d change into used to, he tasked himself with educating diners by way of his 15-course omakase by reducing his costs and altering his fish choice to suit the American diner’s palate (softer, fatty fish like black cod). He even makes use of some elements that many sushi cooks could be appalled by, like a splash of truffle oil.

Uchino insists that Kiyomi’s omakase expertise remains to be extremely genuine, utilizing the identical conventional “chopping, curing, and pickling” methods he mastered and elements sourced from the identical sellers (largely in Japan) that he used at Sushi Nakazawa. This time round, he permits fast-casual sushi lovers to attempt umami-filled uni (sea urchin), melt-in-your-mouth monkfish liver, and 4 totally different cuts of fatty tuna for the primary time.

The Watergate Resort/Kingbird Bar

As Uchino started to alter the uncooked fish programs on his menu, he additionally began to assume extra about what he paired with every chunk. He had all the time paid consideration to sake he loved, however he was additionally beginning to attempting new wines from Casa Teresa’s Spanish wine program. One thing modified “the primary time I attempted Albariño,” he defined. “I instantly take into consideration white fish sushi.” Munoz (who’s Spanish) had launched him to the dry white and that first style spurred a partnership. Munoz helped Uchino to pair the right glowing wine together with his first course and even some vermouths together with his later programs. (He not too long ago debuted a sporadic sequence of omakase tastings with Munoz’s pairings at the Watergate Resort’s Kingbird, the place Munoz is now the director of operations.)

As the chance on the Sq. happened, the homeowners of Bar Japonais requested Uchino to take over their sushi program in February — simply as he was simply starting to consider pairing distinctive drinks with sushi and felt able to convey on certainly one of his apprentices full-time at Kiyomi.

Uchino hasn’t simply pushed the bartenders at Bar Japonais to experiment with sake and soju cocktails, he’s additionally serving to waitstaff to attach with diners having fun with his omakase throughout the whole restaurant by instructing them concerning the tales behind every course. Past simply the place the cuts come from on every fish (which he can simply display behind a sushi bar), he has waiters inform the tales behind every chunk, from the place the fish is from in Japan to the legends of how totally different dishes had been fist served to monarchs tons of of years in the past.

Bar Japonais

Bar Japonais

Why Uchino has drastically modified his strategy to omakase up to now 12 months all goes again to what impressed him to change into a sushi chef. He labored behind eating places, making soba noodles and different dishes, in his hometown of Fukuoka in his early 20s and loved the craftsmanship behind being a chef. However there was one thing lacking: He wished direct suggestions from his diners.

“Being sushi chef is like, you discuss to individuals and I really feel like there’s a second. I really feel, ‘oh, I’m making these individuals joyful,’ proper? You see, that makes me joyful,” he says.

That pursuit of constructing the diner joyful has led Uchino to sudden locations and flavors up to now two years. Though he nonetheless desires to return to his dream of opening his personal high-end omakase bar (with no eating room) sooner or later, he’s joyful to be feeding luxurious bites of sushi to uninitiated diners at Kiyomi within the Sq. and Bar Japonais proper now.

Bar Japonais