Since its opening in early 2023, Noko has develop into one of many metropolis’s favourite eating places, receiving kudos from Scene critic Kay West and lots of Better of Nashville awards. Now the Noko staff of Jon Murray, Wilson Brannock and Chef Dung “Junior” Vo are able to unveil their second idea. On condition that it has simply 14 seats (plus a four-seat bar), it would possible be simply as exhausting to nab a seat at Kase x Noko because it has been at Noko.
Kase x Noko will likely be an omakase restaurant within the storefronts adjoining to Noko within the Outlets at Porter East. More likely to open by the top of the yr, Kase gained’t be Nashville’s first omakase expertise. The idea is having a second on the town. Current Tense in Chestnut Hill, O-Ku Sushi in Germantown, and Sushi | Bar within the Gulch all supply choices. However because the staff did with Noko, they’re taking a unique method for Kase.
Omakase, which interprets to “I’ll depart it as much as you,” is a Japanese chef’s alternative providing, a prix-fixe multicourse meal, normally that includes sushi, recent fish and seasonal components. It normally reveals off the chef’s culinary prowess and provides visitors a chance to banter with the chef. It’s normally additionally pretty costly at $140 per particular person or extra.
“I discover consolation in omakase within the expertise, however not essentially within the worth,” Murray says.
So the Kase 14-course tasting menu will price $75 per particular person.
The Kase identify is a shortened model of the phrase omakase, but it surely additionally loosely interprets to “familial connection,” a nod to Kase’s connection, each when it comes to possession and the bodily location by way of the doorways, to Noko.
Noko’s sister restaurant may have simply 14 seats, plus a four-seat Japanese cocktail bar, which is maybe the smallest bar within the state. The bar was impressed by Tokyo’s cocktail lounges of yesteryear and will likely be walk-up solely (versus the restaurant, which would require reservations), that includes a mixture of whiskeys and sakes in any respect worth factors, from a $9 glass to a $500 90-year-old specialty that’s one in every of solely 400 bottles in existence. The thought is that people can cease in for a drink earlier than their Kase seating or on their option to elsewhere in East Nashville for the evening.
Prints by Dwight Hwang
The decor is as considerate because the menus. The staff acquired the leases of two small outlets subsequent to Noko (one in every of which used to accommodate Fortunate Rabbit Sweet Store) and designed a refined jewel field of a room with darkish wooden, glimmering tile and authentic paintings. Throughout an unique first have a look at the restaurant beneath building for the Scene, Murray described an exterior railing designed to dam gentle from headlights within the parking zone. Gyotaku artwork, a Japanese methodology of printing pictures of fish utilizing precise fish, strains the partitions together with classic movie pictures showcasing Tokyo within the Nineteen Seventies. Vo additionally helped design the restaurant’s plateware with the staff at native pottery studio Zane Ceramics.
The house, with its comparatively reasonably priced hire, is likely one of the issues that’s serving to the staff preserve the omakase costs down, Murray says. It may be costly to herald fish from all around the world, and that’s definitely a price for the restaurant. Vo’s menu of nigiri, hand rolls and extra will characteristic seafood flown in day by day from Japan, Hawaii, Spain, New Zealand and elsewhere. Along with wild-caught fish, Kase will serve farm-raised fish.
“I believe there is a false impression about farm-raised fish,” Murray says. “There are moral and sustainable methods of farm elevating fish.” Utilizing a few of these suppliers may also help management prices.
Prints by Dwight Hwang
Sustainability from suppliers isn’t the staff’s solely such focus. They try to create a superb work surroundings for his or her workers, together with offering medical health insurance, four-day work weeks and two weeks of paid trip. Like Noko, Kase will donate 1 % of internet earnings to their longtime nonprofit accomplice Nashville Kids’s Alliance, a company that gives providers to youngsters who’ve skilled abuse.
Kase x Noko will likely be situated at 703 Porter Highway. Reservations will likely be required for 3 seatings per evening Tuesday by way of Sunday at 5:30, 7 and eight:30 p.m. The whiskey bar will likely be open on a first-come, first-served foundation, Tuesday by way of Sunday from 5 to 9 p.m.
