Noted Japanese chef Satoru Tanaka has taken the Sushi Azabu space on Greenwich and Laight. Thanks to M. for helping me piece this together. When the restaurant came before CB1 last summer they were very mysterious, but M. caught a reference to Tribeca somewhere and a google got me to this post and a shot of 428 Greenwich.

The chef has a great origin story: born in 1967, by age 10 he was helping out at his father’s butcher business and joined the family business right after high school. By 1992 he had opened Yakiniku Tanaka — a Japanese BBQ spot in the Ginza neighborhood of Tokyo. He has expanded the chain in the decades since and has a restaurant that specializes in wagyu beef in the city of Nagoya and one in Hikone City that specializes in omi beef.

It seems like he will take the 10-seat basement space and a branch of Land Bar Artisan will be on the ground floor.

The pictures here are from last summer, sent by the press folks who represented Wasabi Hospitality. At the time they said they would open at the end of the year…

Wasabi Hospitality also has The Joyce, a steakhouse in Miami’s South Beach that has an appealing review on The Infatuation, calling it sexy and expensive: “The food is detailed, the service is skilled, and it all complements a room where you can’t help but feel a little famous.” They also have Le Specialita, an import from Milan, in Miami’s Design District.