Uchi, a James Beard Award-winning Japanese restaurant, is opening in Philadelphia

Uchi, a high-style, fine-dining Japanese restaurant from James Beard Award-winning chef Tyson Cole and his Austin, Texas-based group Hai Hospitality, will join a recent parade of out-of-town restaurant groups setting up in the Philadelphia area.

Hai has signed a lease for a ground-floor space at the Josephine, the new high-rise at 1620 Sansom St. The projected opening is late 2025, setting the scene for a collection of new, big-budget Japanese restaurants within several blocks in the Rittenhouse Square area.

Hai’s in-house design team will work with Philadelphia’s Rohe Creative, whose most recent local restaurant project is Dear Daphni. Renderings are not yet available, though it’s known that Philadelphia’s Uchi will have 165 seats, with 24 of them shared between the bar and sushi bar, and 14 in an outdoor seating area.

Uchi debuted in 2003 in a refurbished bungalow — the name means “house” — and has expanded to seven locations around the country. A location in Charlotte, N.C., is being readied for 2025, while new deals are on the table in the Washington and New York markets, said Tony Montero, Hai’s chief executive.

Hai’s offshoot brands include Uchiko, Uchibā, and LORO Asian Smokehouse & Bar, a collaboration with Aaron Franklin of Austin’s vaunted Franklin Barbecue.

At Uchi, whose Philadelphia budget is over $5 million, “we take the sushi bar experience and bring it to the table,” Montero said. “What I mean by that is when you order, say, eight different types of nigiri pieces, they’re going to come out separately, or maybe two at a time, so that you feel like you’re at the sushi bar.”

Philadelphia has been on Hai’s radar since 2018, said Doug Green of MSC, who brokered the deal. Hai’s then-president, Daryl Kulik, visited for what Green called “very soft recon.”

The pandemic shut down the search. When it resumed in early 2024, the Josephine was well under construction and a deal there for the New York restaurant Boqueria had just fallen through. Green connected Uchi with the developer, Southern Land Co., “who got it.” (There is a further Philadelphia connection: Hai’s growth is funded by KSL Capital Partners, the private-equity group that in 2023 bought Hersha Hospitality, operator of the Rittenhouse Hotel.)

“Philly is perfect for us because the city has so much soul and character,” Cole said in a statement.

The Rittenhouse Japanese dining scene is expected to heat up this year. Royal Sushi & Izakaya’s Jesse Ito and Justin Bacharach, with partners Stephen Simons and David Frank, are hoping for a summer opening of dancerobot, an izakaya, at 1710 Sansom St., a block from Uchi’s future site. Dancerobot will serve brunch and a comfort food menu (such as the meal sets known as teishoku) plus Japanese takes on classic dishes — but no sushi.

Two other big-budget Japanese restaurants are on the way nearby.

Kissho House, due in late winter in a brownstone at 1522 Locust St., is backed by Hiroki alumnus chef Zhengmao “Jeff” Chen. He plans a dining room on the ground floor as well as an omakase experience in the basement.

Also, impresario Teddy Sourias is building an unnamed Japanese-influenced restaurant in the courtyard at 1515 Market St. Incidentally, Center City’s oldest Japanese restaurant — Shiroi Hana, which opened in 1984 — went on the market in December. It remains open for business with an asking price of $2 million.

Cole, 54, a native Floridian, moved to the Houston suburbs while in grade school and then to Austin to study at the University of Texas. He was broke when he got a dishwasher’s job at a Japanese restaurant called Kyoto — he’s said he had never tried sushi and had no formal culinary training. Cole immersed himself in the food and was promoted to sushi chef, but had to work in the back to maintain the appearance of an all-Japanese sushi counter.

Eventually, Cole won a spot out front and rose to head sushi chef. After moving to another Austin sushi restaurant, Musashino, Cole apprenticed under its owner, who took him to Japan and taught him Japanese. Cole later staged at BondST in New York before returning to Musashino on his way to opening Uchi.

Uchi’s menu included fresh fish flown in daily to landlocked Austin and such edgy combinations as aguro sashimi and goat cheese, which is paired slices of bluefin tuna and Fuji apple with local goat cheese, topped with sanbaizu sauce, pumpkin seed oil, and shiso garnish.

Cole won the Beard award in 2011 for Best Chef, Southwest, and was a semifinalist in 2016 for Outstanding Chef.