Ltd Edition debuted on Capitol Hill under COVID-19 restrictions and can now welcome in-person diners (Image: Ltd Edition)

Artist rendering of the Pivot building, currently wrapping up construction on lower Pine below Melrose (Image: Vibrant Cities)

2022 will bring a new sushi restaurant to the base of Capitol Hill. Meanwhile, one of the neighborhood’s newest sushi joints is celebrating a re-start, of sorts, as it finally can offer in-person dining after opening earlier this year under COVID-19 restrictions.

Wasabi Sushi is lining up plans for a 1,600-square-foot bar on the ground floor of the new Pivot Apartments development on Pine just below Melrose. The new project is apparently unrelated to Belltown’s Wasabi Sushi & Izakaya, one of the city’s longest running sushi joints. Instead, the new Pine Wasabi comes from the Happy Valley, Oregon-based chain that boasts two sushi bars and a walk-up sushi trailer in Portland. Wasabi Sushi’s first expansion will come in Troutdale, followed by the Pine bar opening in “spring.”

Wasabi’s PDX roots (Image: Wasabi Sushi)

The Pivot project boasts more than 4,000 square feet of street level commercial space so expect a neighbor or two to join the project. CHS reported on the development from Vibrant Cities here in January 2020 as the developer hacked back early ambitions of a garden terraced, mixed-use office building to a more standard eight-story, 65-unit apartment project with ground floor retail. Early last year, the plan was to put some of the units to use as part of the Sonder system of short-term lodging options in the city. Currently there are two Sonder properties in Seattle, both on Capitol Hill. In one, The Boylston on Boylston between Pine and Pike, rooms start at $153 a night for a studio. E Pike’s super green Solis building also offers units on Solis starting at $153 a night.

While Wasabi Sushi is targeting an early 2022 opening, Ltd Edition debuted its sushi ambitions on the edge of Cal Anderson Park this summer under COVID-19 restrictions by focusing its concept on “premium omakase” boxes to go.

Now the Nagle Place restaurant is ready to welcome in-person diners and say it has brought in some well-regarded help. Ltd says owner Keiji Tsukasaki, formerly the head chef at Kashiba Sushi in Seattle, is partnering with Jun Kobayashi as the executive chef at the new Capitol Hill restaurant. Kobayashi was formerly the head sushi chef at Shiro’s Sushi.

(Image: Ltd Edition)

Under Kobayashi, Ltd now offers one omakase menu and is limiting orders to “32 a day to ensure the freshest, highest grade sushi possible.”

“We source fish locally and from Toyosu Fish Market in Tokyo,” a spokesperson for Ltd tells CHS. “With an 8 person sushi bar and 8 person table seats, we have created an intimate experience similar to what you would find all over Japan.”

Wasabi Sushi Seattle is planned to open at 1208 Pine in spring 2022. You can learn more at happypeopleeatsushi.com.

Ltd Edition Sushi is located at 1641 Nagle Place. Learn more at ltdeditionsushi.com.

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