It ’s just past 11 pm on a Thursday night when a couple of human beings take the air into 91 Clinton St. 11 months out of the year , the Lower East Side storefront is home toNew York Sushi Ko ; at the starting of August , Mayanoki , New York ’s first and only sustainable omakase pop - up , moved in . enclothe in an SF Giants baseball cap , the sushi chef hand over the cake to serve Massachusetts scallops to a group of char as he require them about Bonnaroo while Florence and the Machine plays in the background . He offer to serve the fresh guests sushi a la carte ( “ just tell me when to kibosh ” ) as they ’ve missed the last 9 promethium omakase seating . Lured in by the recently torch , Spanish mackerel with fresh yuzukoshō ( not a bright orangish salmon slab so iconic to New York ’s sushi haunts ) they stay , favourable to grab a berth at the antecedently sold - out eight - seat sushi counter for the nightly rounds of $ 125 omakase .
For age , Mayanoki was the only place in New York where you could dine on sustainable sushi . This past April , Chisai Sushi Baropened in Crown Heights , offering fast - casual sustainable sushi ( including a $ 7 California roll using local crab and a line - catch yellowfish scallion roll ) , but Mayanoki still remains as NYC ’s only sustainable omakase place .
For the uninitiated , sustainable sushi is created when a seafood menu takes into account government regulations , environmental suggestions , and seasonality , slim the negative impact overfishing and abuse of seafood can have on the environs . While many upscale New York sushi restaurants emphasize import fish from Japan , this is not the most sustainable or environmentally responsible mode to eat up sushi en masse .
Melissa Kravitz/Thrillist
Still , seafood sustainability is not a clear - cut standard . organisation like Monterey Bay Aquarium ’s Seafood Watch and Ocean Wise monitor the biomass of sealed species of fish in the ocean , and seasonality remains an incredibly of import factor . What is all the way - turn off is that the fish most dining car associate with sushi restaurants are baffling . “ When people go into a sushi eating house , they want a tuna piece , a salmon opus , and a yellowtail piece , ” Mayanoki co - founder David Torchiano says . “ Those are always available , but unluckily are n’t the most sustainable selection . ”
Tuna is direly overfished , and Salmon River is often farm - raised in harsh condition , using antibiotics , hormones , and pesticides not exactly set for human use . Concerns about mercury and higher concentrations of PCP in larger fish are rationality enough to make you second - reckon that $ 9.99 special of three blue Opuntia tuna roll you get for tiffin every hebdomad .
Of course , eating sustainably not only benefits our health , but that of the surround , too . “ The health of the ocean is really authoritative to the health of the overall clime . If we do n’t take care of the ocean , there are going to be significant repercussion , ” Torchiano say . “ I believe we ’re seeing it already … If we start to overfish large predator like tuna , it ’s not that they just vanish , the entire intellectual nourishment Ernst Boris Chain collapses . There will be moderately significant consequences if we do n’t dwell and choose to eat sustainably . ”
Melissa Kravtiz/Thrillist
Mayanoki ( a name Torchiano and co - founding father Josh Arak came up with one nighttime while under the influence of , well , something ) officially started in 2012 , when the duo want to discover a space for restaurant - less sushi chef Albert Tse , a skilled sushi master they met circa 2005 at TriBeCa ’s Zutto . The fanboys want Tse to keep up his sushi impulse , and resolve to build a popping - up just for him . Tse would finally leave the undertaking , but that was n’t the remnant for Mayanoki or its commission to get New Yorkers to care about where their Pisces hail from .
The first shrine to Tse ’s sushi skills commence at Arak and Torchiano ’s apartments in Union Square and Astoria , where 12 people crowd in to get a taste of Tse ’s sushi expertise . “ We call back that if we could get 12 people at our apartments , we can get them at some other plaza , ” Torchiano says .
Melissa Kravtiz/Thrillist
After practically endless moth-eaten - calling in hunt of the everlasting , affordable space to host dinners ( New York apartment hunters can relate ) , in September 2013 , Mayanoki put down at Brooklyn Oenology , a wine maker and taste room in Williamsburg , where they would pop up doubly every other calendar week with an omakase menu .
“ It was a not bad partnership , ” Torchiano say . “ We would come in on a slow dark and sell sushi and they would trade wine . ”
The Brooklyn Oenology partnership was in seat for two years until Tse left the project due to its demanding schedule . “ It was 14 hours a day for the chef : He had to receive the product , break [ the fish ] down and he could n’t commit the clock time and get-up-and-go to the enterprisingness and finally left , ” Torchiano say .
Melissa Kravtiz/Thrillist
Without a chef , Mayanoki took a temporary foramen in June 2015 .
thing turn around this past spring , though , when a New York real land phantasy came to living : Mayanoki was offered a sublet .
John Daly , the chef - proprietor of New York Sushi Ko , reached out to Mayanoki to see if they wanted to employ his eating place for the calendar month of August , when business was dull because New Yorkers were out of the city . Daly decide to spend the calendar month out East , and Mayanoki moved in .
Melissa Kravtiz/Thrillist
Mayanoki did n’t start out with a sustainable focus . It was merely a assembly for Tse to serve his sushi . “ As we were learning more about sushi and buying fish and where it ’s coming from and fundamentally the devastation that it has on the environment , we decide that if we ’re go to proceed to do this , we necessitate to do it in a manner that we feel comfortable promoting , ” Torchiano says . “ That really is just being as sustainable as possible . ”
The dash of pop - ups themselves are inherently full of sustainable welfare : Mayanoki uses New York Sushi Ko ’s refrigerators and equipment , and , of path , continue the outer space productive during an otherwise empty fourth dimension .
The Sushi Ko invitation further helped Mayanoki expand its underlying mission with a newfangled chef that Daly also help bring in : Jeff Miller , whom he ’d antecedently cope with filming a section for Munchies and wanted for his own eating place . Miller was responsible for purchase Pisces at Uchi in Texas , and already had a sustainable stress , so he was the good fit .
Miller never plan to be a sushi chef . “ I ’d be extend a sustainable copy store pop music - up now , if everything had plump right , ” the tall chef in a SF Giants jacket crown joked to an enthralled sushi replication audience . While studying news media at the University of Florida , Miller walk into local sushi eatery Dragonfly , and was straight off mistaken for one of the owner ’s friends . Without a formal interview , he was charter to exploit the sushi counter on the spot and immediately quit his other college job working at a local transcript store . After graduating with a degree in news media , the California aboriginal decide to quest after sushi full - time .
Miller pack up to move to New York to spearhead Mayanoki just weeks before the summer dad - up re - opened . Shiny , Ag - skin fish are in season in August , and Miller has added them to his card , along with local fluke , Massachusetts scallops , and other East Coast seafood . To break up the 12- to 15 - course taste ( it ’s wanton to fall behind count ) , he also dish sushi , like a dual - ball bankroll featuring both Salmon River roe and and a chewy tamago omelet , as well as a seared - to - parliamentary law trump mushroom-shaped cloud sprinkled with just enough ocean Strategic Arms Limitation Talks to almost pop off as a chewy , umami - pack fade of Pisces the Fishes .
“ There will be pretty important consequences if we do n’t live on and opt to eat sustainably . ”
create a sustainable seafood menu requires flexibleness , and Torchiano believes this is one of the principal reasons New York is pretty much bereft of sustainable sushi spots . “ Our big challenge is overcoming the preconceived notion the great unwashed have about what they want and what is in effect for them , ” Torchiano says .
The pop - up sources fish catch in New Jersey and Massachusetts the day before , and partners with purveyors who exploit immediately with individually owned sauceboat and fishermen ; in contrast , many New York sushi eating place vaporize in their fish from Japan . “ Most places are n’t willing to take on the risk of corrupt lionfish or surf clam and prepare that a central part of the menu , ” Torchaino says . Though high-pitched - end places may have more seldom come across Pisces the Fishes , they ’re certainly not highlighted on the menu above bluefin toro . The lack of sustainable sushi in New York City is a twofold problem : “ Restaurants do n’t go out of their way and buy thing that they do n’t think they ’re going to sell , and people do n’t know to ask for it , ” Torchiano explains .
Mayanoki is changing that . After the squad eliminated publish menus ( because customers started cull out sure dishes in the omakase they knew they would n’t care ) , diners pop get more adventuresome and enjoy newfangled fish without being too scrupulous . “ We ’ve never had one complaint about the lineament of fish or the quality of the meal , ” Torchiano says .
decently now , a meal at Mayanoki will open up you up to the likes of scup with shiso and lemon zest , bare-assed sea basso , Duxbury oyster with shiso and ikura , and Long Island fluke with white ponzu and chives . Those with an endless appetency can prefer to try their favorite piece again – Arctic char is a buff favourite – or carry on munching a la carte until their sustainable sushi glut is quenched .
As for what descend next , Mayanoki is still working on point on their next round of golf of pop - ups , but they prognosticate to hold more events in the metropolis , and perhaps even receptive in a lasting quad . For now , reservation can be made atMayanoki.com . “ We have one shot to prove to people that sustainable sushi is not just a good idea , but a delicious melodic theme , ” Torchiano says .
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