This Michelin-starred sushi restaurant just opened an outpost in Coconut Grove

After Phillip Frankland Lee and his wife Margarita Kallas-Lee opened their first restaurant Scratch Bar & Kitchen in 2013, Lee yearned to make another long-time dream come true: He wanted to open a sushi spot. Growing up in Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley, which has one of the highest concentrations of sushi bars in the country, he had wanted to be a sushi chef since he was 13.

Kallas-Lee pointed out that the restaurant, then located in Beverly Hills and now in Encino, was too busy to spare Lee for long periods of time. So he turned his office into a tiny omakase restaurant.

The restaurant, so small it only had room for a counter, a fridge and eight diners, had no name, no website, no phone number and didn’t take reservations. Diners had to show up and write their name on a blackboard with 24 slots to get a seat.

“It was a terrible business model,” Lee admits now, laughing. But it took off, and from that meager space a restaurant empire grew, one that has earned Michelin stars and now has made its way to Miami.

One of four Sushi by Scratch locations, the Miami restaurant is now open on the first floor of the historic Stirrup House in Coconut Grove, behind Michael Beltran’s Ariete, which earned its first Michelin star in June. The menu is served omakase-style (chef’s choice), and like all the Scratch restaurants everything is made from scratch, including the soy sauce and vinegar.

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“If we want prosciutto, we have to buy a pig and wait three years,” jokes Lee, who also operates two Pasta by Scratch restaurants in L.A. and Austin as well as Sushi by Scratch locations in Los Angeles, Austin and Montecito. The L.A. pasta and Montecito sushi restaurants both earned Michelin stars in 2021.

The Miami restaurant will serve its 17-course omakase menu to 10 customers per seating, with three seatings each night. You must have a reservation, and they’re hard to come by. On the first of each month, Sushi by Scratch will open its website for reservations. July is already sold out, but you can be put on a waiting list in case of a cancellation.

Lee says the Miami menu will include some of the signature items from the other restaurants, including hamachi painted with sweet corn pudding with sourdough bread crumbs and wasabi grated over the top, a nod to the sweet corn Lee grew up eating every summer as a kid and the ever-present California sourdough.

Also on the menu is what Lee calls the 1-2 punch: a bone marrow course followed by Japanese eel seasoned with salt made from matcha green tea, mushrooms and kelp, with bone marrow fat blowtorched and dripping over it.

“It’s not traditional nigiri,” Lee says, “but I grew up eating bone marrow, and I love it. It’s on all my menus. And it’s instantly everyone’s favorite.”

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The sharing of his past in culinary creations is something Lee believes defines his Sushi by Scratch restaurants and sets them apart.

“I view cuisine as a language,” he says. “You can either regurgitate the words you’ve heard or try to add to the conversation. . . . traditionally, in the best omakase bars in Tokyo, it’s not about who had the better fish or rice. At that level you’re splitting hairs. Everyone’s trying to get the best fish and best rice. What separates one sushi spot from the next is each chef telling the story of their childhood and neighborhood. How they grew up is in the presentation of their fish.”

Sushi by Scratch

Where: 3242 Charles St., Coconut Grove

Cost: $165 per person plus tax and service; add $85 for pairing of three sakes, two cocktails and one beer, $110 for pairing of six sakes

Seatings: 5 p.m.; 7:15 p.m.; 9:30 p.m. daily

Reservations: Open on the first day of each month for the following month at www.sushibyscratchrestaurants.com

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