Coming Soon: Kushi

A new Japanese Izakaya-style restaurant is slated to open this fall at 645 465 K St. NW in the City Vista building (at right).

Kushi Restaurant will serve sushi, regional Japanese food and Kushiyaki — skewers of meat, seafood, poultry and vegetables grilled over open flames. An open kitchen will feature grills for the Kushiyaki and a robata fire pit for grilling whole fish and large cuts of meats.

Behind the 4,000-square-foot restaurant, slated for an October opening, are Darren Lee Norris and Ari Kushimoto Norris, a husband-and-wife team. He was most recently executive chef of Ridgewells caterers in Bethesda; she's a former AOL art director and is heading up the restaurant's design.

Leading the sushi bar will be Yoshihisa Ota, chef and owner of Ginza Gakyu in Tokyo. Rounding out the Kushi team of partners is long-time Ridgewells sous chef Peter Laufer, who will be opening chef de cuisine and local artist Thom Flynn as beverage service director.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Very, very cool. Great scoop!
5/14/2009 1:42 PM
Anonymous said…
City Vista is on the 400 block of K St.
5/14/2009 3:41 PM
Amanda said…
Press release listed the wrong address. Thanks for your sharp eyes, anon! Fixed now.
5/14/2009 4:16 PM
Justin from ReadysetDC said…
YES! K Street in the Triangle is starting to round out.
5/14/2009 6:19 PM
Anonymous said…
I prototyped their restaurant concept for over a year for almost free (they kept promising that their money would become real) ... After 14 months of holding their hands, helping them dodge bullets, & leading them to the water, their budget was way short & Darren gave my studio an unexpected dirty screw. Will be interesting to see what they can pull off. They lack experience & class.
6/22/2009 1:31 AM
Anonymous said…
Can I tell you what else they lack...? A SIGN!!! How the hell will anyone know they are even there with that cheap, blow in the wind, red, bling your eye and will miss it flag?
2/23/2010 7:31 PM
VS said…
Gotta love anonymous haters...
3/03/2010 8:35 AM
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