CASA NEXT DOOR

Wegmans Opens Next Door Restaurant in NYC

"A contemporary Japanese restaurant launched by the Wegmans company that was moved out from inside the grocery store into its own space to provide a dedicated entrance and parking; a Manhattan location is set to open on April 30. The menu is built around a sushi counter and a custom-built robata grill with wholesale access to very fresh seafood from Japan, New Zealand, and Norway, yielding offerings such as chu-toro tartare, oysters and caviar, chirashi, king-crab legs, and a koji-marinated rib eye. The kitchen team—led by veteran Wegmans chef John Emerson alongside Oliver Lange and Kazuya Matsuoka—leverages company-scale supply chains (including relationships at Tokyo’s Toyosu market and a long-standing New Zealand salmon vendor) and is experimenting with koji sourced from Kyoto to deepen umami and tenderness. The dining room contrasts the grocery-store fluorescence with tall windows, huge mirrored oceanic panels, brushed-brass lighting, white tablecloths, velvet banquettes, and artificial live oaks, producing a kind of hotel-lobby, soft-suburban grandeur even in a former big-box location." - Anna Hezel