The first time Pharrell Williams visited Nami Nori’s flagship location on Carmine Street in New York’s West Village, he found himself in hand roll heaven.
“My friend told me it would be everything I loved in one experience, and she was absolutely right,” the multi-hyphenate recalls of what was the beginning of a hot-as-wasabi love affair. “I was first in awe of the precision and innovation in the food, but also the incredible energy of the space, which begins with the positivity and warmth of the founders.”
From love at first bite, the Grammy Award-winner grabbed his chopsticks and soon became a partner and investor in the viral five-year old temaki eatery, teaming up with founders Taka Sakaeda, Jihan Lee, and Lisa Limb, who have been at the forefront of what’s been dubbed a “hand roll revolution.”
“For us, it really is about creativity,” says Lee, when asked what it was about Nami Nori that turned a nuanced tastemaker like Pharrell into a passionate disciple. “We really take the opportunity to create very special moments in terms of the design, the menu, and the service. One of the things that is a pillar of our organization is Omotenashi which is basically a cultural element from Japan which really raises hospitality to the level of an art form.”
It’s an apt analogy. This week, just in time for Art Basel, Nami Nori brings that aforementioned Omotanashi to South Florida with a new location in Miami’s Design District—a move powered in part by Skateboard P himself.
According to Limb, opening the outfit’s first restaurant outside of the New York area was the realization of a years-long goal. “After doing some scouting down in Miami, we decided the Design District really was the ultimate fit for a new location,” she says. Evidence of their confidence? The team has also opened up a new temaki concept, dubbed Matsuyoi, in the space upstairs, which features a 10-seat bar.
