Our Story

Sumi opened in 1974 with six stools, a single binchotan grill, and a hand-painted noren curtain. The neighborhood has changed around us three times over, but the counter still wears the same warm patina of fifty years of elbows and sake.

We press our rice by hand, cut our fish to order, and keep the grill burning from the moment the doors open until the last guest leaves. The tare for our yakitori has been replenished, never replaced, for decades — each batch carrying a little of the one before it.

There are no reservations and no rush. Pull up a stool, order a carafe, and let the evening turn slowly. That is the whole idea.