Opened in 1999 in Midtown East, this award-winning Manhattan restaurant earned a Michelin Star for the first time after its BFA renovation. Based on a commitment to a pure expression of the traditional art of sushi making, it attracts a steady stream of devoted clientele. When the opportunity arose to acquire more space contiguous to its small footprint, the client engaged BFA to design a significant expansion and renovation. The project goal was to increase seating capacity from 41 to a needed 64 and offer patrons more variety in dining experience, serviced through an upgrade to back-of-house operations. Critical to the project was a desire to preserve the restaurant’s serene, intimate ambiance, reflective of the quiet sensibilities of Japanese culture that made it a coveted dining oasis. Constructed first, the 1,160 sf addition contains a new kitchen that more than quadrupled the back-of-house zone. A new stair connects to storage, office, and staff facilities in the basement. The old kitchen and office in the original 2,200 sf space were then demolished and replaced with new dining areas—two private dining rooms and a private sushi bar. These spaces reflected the restrained aesthetic of the public dining room and sushi bar, which received a gentle refurbishment to create a cohesive whole.

Warm yet minimal, the design conveys modern sensibilities infused with a reverence for nature. Natural bamboo defines the restaurant’s interior through a host of geometric iterations.  Rectangular wood panels of varying proportion line the walls, adding subtle rhythm to the rooms. The sole color employed in the interior is a cool seafoam green, used in the upholstery of the chairs and banquettes and for the glass back walls of the two sushi bars. Green reappears on the exterior in integrally tinted plaster that frames the restaurant’s storefronts, composed in Mondrianesque patterns of metal and glass. A panel of glass adjacent to the entrance is lit by LEDs that shift in color over the course of the evening. One of BFA’s major challenges for this project was to keep the restaurant in operation as much as possible during the construction period. The architects and contractor solved this with a tightly phased approach, minimizing closure to just three weeks.