A Polish guy can cut sushi too. You got a problem with that?
When you tell people there’s free sushi, look out. My darling wife Kathy and I arrived at 475 Ellicott St., just north of the Washington Market, to find the street blocked off and a crowd of people milling about, with their eyes on the glass door of 475 Ellicott.
That’s where nontraditional sushi whiz Mike Andrzejewski is to open a new outpost of his restaurant Seabar on July 1.
A black-clad server bearing a tray of sushi emerged, and only made it a few steps before being completely surrounded by a clot of sushi-seekers. I flashed on a National Geographic film, piranhas swarming a calf knee-deep in the river. The fish get their revenge.
Mike wasn’t even sending out the fancy stuff, just meat-and-potatoes sushi, so to speak. Turns out blue-collar sushi is fine by me.
But Mike no doubt means business. Look at the left forearm tattoo (above left), a work in progress. When he gets the colors needled in, it’ll be something to behold. It might even make some observers feel the slightest bit peckish.
I would expect some of the downtown office types who do Kuni’s drive-bys for lunch will hit Seabar City to check out the goods. (The phone is 716-332-2928). Kathy, who has enjoyed lunch at the original Seabar in Amherst, says the sushi tacos ($7) are a steal.
No word yet on whether the spam musubi handrolls will be a lunch choice.
7 Comments
June 28, 2008 at 9:51 am
Do you mean that downtown workers will check out Seabar? “Take a pass” means to skip it.
Does Seabar have a website? What are lunch hours there?
June 28, 2008 at 11:24 am
Celia,
I added a link to the Seabar site, thanks for pointing out the need. It doesn’t specify the lunch hours; you’ll have to call.
By “take a pass at” I meant people will hit the place at least once. I changed the sentence to it make absolutely clear.
June 29, 2008 at 6:57 am
Lunch is 11:30 AM – 2:30 PM; Dinner starts at 4:30 PM. There will be lunch specials and you can get it all to go if you can’t get away from your desk.
June 29, 2008 at 10:11 am
I am shocked, shocked that Mike would impose his food on a second location. This is not bitterness because he beat me at the Burger Smackdown, but rather the recognition that I don’t have enough time to visit his existing site!
But, as a note to the readers of this blog, Mike’s sushi/sashimi (as great as it is) is not the totality of his offerings. Some of his entree’s and specials are memorable as well. I particularly loved his take on Morimoto’s short-ribs, braised and then fried as Tempura. An improvement over the original, IMHO.
Break a leg, Mike! (Did I really just type that . . . )
June 29, 2008 at 4:30 pm
Scotty, time for a Sushi Smackdown!
June 30, 2008 at 9:01 am
Matthew,
Sun Tzu wrote “He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight.”
To put it as I did in an answer for the Ohio Bar Exam: To quote Inspector Harry Callahan “A man’s got to know his limitations.”
July 13, 2008 at 7:57 am
Best of luck to Mike A at this coming weeks James Beard event.
Someone wants to do a sushi smackdown? Count me in for that!