If you’re a Sushi Roku fan, I have some bad news. This award-winning sushi restaurant, which has enjoyed a 15-year run at the trendy W hotel in Scottsdale, is closing shop after dinner service on July 31. Are you shocked? I must admit I am. The place has long been considered one of metro Phoenix’s best options for creative sushi in a thoroughly glamorous setting. It seemed to be a fixture.
But hey, it’s the same old story we’ve heard in a hundred variations over the years. The lease ends in July, which prompts the parties on both ends to reconsider their options. Apparently, the W has long needed an all-day restaurant to provide for its hotel guests, and that’s not something Sushi Roku is able to do.
Meanwhile, the team behind Sushi Roku — Los Angeles-based Innovative Dining Group — has decided to focus on Sushi Roku’s expansion in other cities, including Austin, Texas and Palo Alto, California, both locations under construction now. The group has also launched other restaurant brands — Katana, Robata Bar, B Grill and Pacific Grill — so they’re in growth mode.
In making the announcement via press release, IDG explains that it loves the Phoenix market and hopes to return someday, possibly with another Sushi Roku or with its BOA Steakhouse brand. God knows Phoenix loves a steakhouse.
I, for one, will miss Sushi Roku’s fun cocktails, classy yet comfortable setting, spicy tuna on crispy rice, cool sashimi options such as fluke kumquat with yuzu vinaigrette, and the impossibly florid White Lotus roll, stuffed with popcorn shrimp tempura, avocado and asparagus and topped with albacore, crispy onions and wasabi truffle soy. I think I’m going to have to get in there for a sayonara last supper before July 31.
I’m eager to see what the W will do with the vacated space. All-day restaurants are seldom exciting, but this is the W, after all, home to Old Town’s sexiest pool scene. Surely, the W’s new restaurant will be competing with Cala, the Mediterranean-inspired restaurant in Senna House just down the street. Both hotels draw the same young, restless crowd that lives in the Entertainment District every weekend. Should be interesting.
