Bethesda Sushi Chef Plotting New Japanese Eatery Downtown

(Updated at 9 a.m. Thursday) The chef behind a sushi restaurant in Bethesda has plans to open a new eatery in downtown D.C.

Yoshi Ota, executive sushi chef at Yuzu in Bethesda, will open a new restaurant called Sushi Gakyu at 1420 New York Ave. NW later this year, he told Borderstan.

The forthcoming eatery will serve “traditional and modern sushi, sashimi, and varieties of Japanese fish menus with my 30 years experience as a sushi and fish expert,” Ota said.

Ota is a veteran of Sushiko in Chevy Chase and the late Kushi in Mt. Vernon Triangle, according to his bio. He also previously owned a restaurant called Ginza Gakyu in Tokyo, Japan.

If all goes according to plan, Sushi Gakyu should open “around the end of 2016,” Ota said.