Sushi by Scratch, Dallas' new omakase restaurant opening in December 2023, will be taking reservations quickly. Similarly, early: In Seattle, 100,000 people were on a waiting list before the 10-seat restaurant began selling its first 17-course meal, chef and co-owner Philip Frankland Lee said last night. He said this.
[Update: Reservations sold out before the end of the first day, on Nov. 28, 2023. Reservations become available again on Dec. 1, 2023 at noon, for dates in January 2024.]
In Dallas, the $165-per-person experience is tucked away inside a hotel room on the eighth floor of downtown's Adolphus.
When the elevator reaches the 8th floor, the chef instructs you to turn right. “Please step down 15 steps.” To the left is a placard urging diners to ring the bell.
The adventure begins when the general manager opens the hotel room door.
Lee enjoys creating these secret, expensive and exclusive tasting experiences across the United States. His restaurant Sushi by Scratch at Montecito Inn in California was awarded a Michelin star in 2021 and 2022. Lee and his wife Margarita Karas-Lee, a pastry chef and co-owner of the restaurant group, currently live in Austin, where 17 Sushi by Scratch chefs serve. Lost Pines Resort Meal Course. The company currently has a team of three chefs in locations including Miami, Montreal, Chicago and Seattle.
The restaurant in Dallas is located between hotel rooms, so it may be temporary. Indeed, when Adolphus opened more than 110 years ago, its founders probably never imagined that there would be a secret sushi bootlegger on his eighth floor.
Philip Frankland Lee said in an interview: dallas morning news He said he hopes the Adolphus restaurant is permanent. Time will tell.
“When I was in Adolphus a few years ago, I said, 'We have to have a restaurant here,'” he said. He has been working on this contract for two years. Notably, the hotel's famous French Room has remained closed throughout that time, as the team reconsiders how to host fine dining at the historic hotel post-pandemic.
Atmosphere of Sushi by Scratch: Elegant but not old-fashioned
The two-hour dinner at Sushi by Scratch is sophisticated and nice, with the chef wearing a crisp white button-down and black tie, but it's anything but quiet. The gregarious Lee stands in the center of the room and jokes as he slices the fish, slathers it with ponzu sauce, sprinkles it with Balinese salt and tops it with hand-crushed wasabi.
Lee is a high school dropout who started playing drums in a punk rock band before finding his way back into the kitchen. He says he's wanted to make sushi since he was 13, growing up near a fish market in California.
The Lee family opened their first sushi restaurant eight years ago. In Los Angeles, he started a small omakase-style restaurant called Sushi Bar, and it was these two who expanded to other cities. The Lee family sold the Austin location to a private equity group in late 2021 and is now focused on growing Sushi by Scratch Restaurants, with Dallas being the company's 10th location.
The two eponymous sushi restaurants are separate, but since Philippe and Margarita technically started both, Dallasites will need to do their homework to keep it straight. There is no longer any relationship between the two. Sushi Bar will expand to Dallas on December 1, 2023, and Sushi by Scratch is scheduled to open on December 8, 2023.
Coincidence? I don't know.
Cuisine: 17 carefully selected courses
Philip Frankland Lee says 17 courses is a “magic number.” It sounds like a lot of dishes, but each course is served bite-by-bite in front of eight guests. The restaurant has seating at 5pm, 7:15pm and 9:30pm, and at the end of your tasting you can request more food if you're still hungry. (A regular athlete in Los Angeles set a record by ordering 101 additional courses.) In other cities, chefs said they served his 40 or his 50 or so courses. )
My opinion? 17 pieces is enough. But if you want another bite or two, you can try the chef's favorites. They're basically like a sushi encore, and they work right away, regardless of the script.
During dinner, the music of 1930s Japanese bandleader Koichi Sugii blares from the speakers above. Approximately 90 songs set on shuffle bring some old-school vibrancy to the room. And Lee loves it. But will the music ever change at Sushi by Scratch restaurants? I asked. it's not.
“I can hear it in my sleep,” said a chef visiting from Austin as he prepared the next course.
While most omakase restaurants have a bar-like atmosphere, Sushi by Scratch has one large table where you can watch the chef's hands shaping hot rice or holding a blowtorch to slippery fish. Karasu Lee's father traveled across the country with a team of chefs and started his own restaurant.
Most of the dishes at Sushi by Scratch are simple but thoughtful. Lee describes this technique as a “whisper of flavor” on raw fish. My favorite was the salmon from New Zealand's Big Glory Bay, toasted and topped with homemade soy, lemon juice, salt, pickled horseradish stems, olive oil and other delicate touches. Adding more caviar adds a nutty sweetness.
Lee's signature dish is the hamachi first course. Sweet corn pudding is spread and sourdough crumbs are sprinkled on top. Lee said he “stole” it from his wife's latest batch of bread.
“On paper, that seems kind of crazy,” the chef said in an interview. “But once you take a bite, you're gone.”[expletive]”This is the best hamachi I've ever had.” The hamachi melts like butter and the breading is earthy and not distractingly crunchy.
Subsequent courses may include scallops with yuzu pepper with poblano pepper. Red sea bream topped with green onion curls. Silky flounder (Japanese fluke) with Texas olive oil and lemon. A simple cut of wine red red meat (bluefin tuna).
The chef gets fancy with the last course and it feels like a culmination to a fun and surprising evening. Kuroge Wagyu beef, buttery bone marrow, and pillowy sea urchin could be some of the finishers of this 17-course tasting course.
Diners can enjoy sake and Japanese-inspired cocktails for an additional fee while the chef prepares the menu in the unlikely setting of a beautifully renovated room on the eighth floor of a hotel in the middle of downtown Dallas. can do. The people in the room will naturally feel like they are part of a secret society.
“I can’t tell you how excited we are to be here,” Lee says.
Sushi by Scratch is located at 1321 Commerce St. (8th floor, Adolphus Hotel) in Dallas. Reservations are required. Reservations for the next month will be released at noon on his 1st of the month.
The 10-seat restaurant will open on December 8, 2023. Seating will be open Wednesday through Sunday at 5:00 p.m., 7:15 p.m., and 9:30 p.m. The restaurant's 17-course meal costs him $165 per person, with the option to add caviar or truffles for an additional fee. Cocktail pairings cost an additional $105 to $125 per person.
Story published on November 28, 2023, first sold out details updated on November 29, 2023.
