The fish selections might have been more limited, too, and the cost of an omakase meal was much less than it is today. “It felt more congenial and warmer, and I’m not comparing it to a particular place I’m just saying this generally.” The dishes, he says, were more traditional. “It was a lot less formal,” Elkon recalls, about having sushi omakase in New York in the ’80s. And they both offered dining experiences that differ from what constitutes sushi omakase dining in New York today. Those dining experiences in New York and in Japan, he says, were formative in multiple ways.
SHION 69 LEONARD ISO
It was the late 1980s and more often than not, Elkon found himself seated at the counter of places like Iso (now known as Kanoyama) downtown, or Sushi Say (now Sushi Ann), Hatsuhana, and his personal favorite, Sushi Hatsu (now the original flagship for Sushi Seki), in Midtown Manhattan, eager to try the chef’s omakase.Ī decade later, in the ’90s and early aughts, Elkon, then a telecommunications executive, found himself taking frequent business trips to Tokyo and lived there for a time, where he dreamed of one day opening a sushi shop of his own. Long before Elkon ever opened a restaurant of his own, he was a high schooler with a penchant for Japanese food - particularly sushi. Resy spoke with both Elkon and Uino for their thoughts about the state of sushi omakase in New York, and where they see it headed.Ī Shift in How New Yorkers Approach Sushi Omakase (Masa Takayama, of Masa, charges anywhere from $650 to $800 per person for his sushi omakase.) It’s clear that Elkon and Uino, like Takayama and others, have placed their bets on the high end of the sushi dining spectrum. And he’s become known for offering one of the most expensive sushi omakase dinners in the entire city, at $420 per person, service included. Where others seek to modernize sushi, he’s definitely more of a traditionalist. In May 2021, Uino, formerly the head chef at Michelin-starred Sushi Amane, became the chef at 69 Leonard, which Elkon has owned and operated since 2017.Īt Shion 69 Leonard Street, Uino has garnered praise for his adherence to using time-honored sushi techniques at the intimate eight-seat sushi counter. Idan Elkon and chef Shion Uino, the owner and the chef, respectively, of New York’s Shion 69 Leonard Street, have some thoughts.
Do the prices continue to rise? Will diners ever tire of the sushi dining experience? Is there room for more affordably priced sushi in a sushi-obsessed town like New York? Will we see prices creep up for mid-tier sushi dining that hovers near $70 per person? Can our oceans even sustain the insatiable demand that New Yorkers - and diners the world over - have for sushi? It’s not entirely clear where sushi in New York goes from here, however.
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