Since opening in 2013 in New York City’s Greenwich Village, Sushi Nakazawa has been considered one of the top omakase spots in the country. Chef Daisuke Nakazawa, a former apprentice of revered sushi chef Jiro Ono (who starred in Jiro Dreams of Sushi), offers tastings of his signature Edomae-style nigiri, as well as a menu of hot and cold dishes. Beverage Director Dean Fuerth’s sake pairings are an integral part of experience. In fact, the original NYC outpost has the largest selection of sakes in the United States. For the past four years, The World of Fine Wine named it “Best Sake List, North America.”
Due to space restrictions, most of it is hidden away in a basement. But when the team opened their third location in Los Angeles this past spring, they put those rare selections of full display in their centerpiece cellar.
The Design: Made of polished brass and double glass panes, the modern showpiece features a label-forward design that shows off the rarest bottles in the collection. “Given that sake has become such a big part of the restaurant, we really wanted to put it on display,” says Fuerth. “We wanted to showcase rarities and the access we have to incredible beverages that we’ve been able to get through our personal relationships with producers—some of which less than a handful of bottles come in the country.”
In addition to the 300 bottles that are displayed and stored on those brass shelves, this gem of a cellar holds approximately 2,000 bottles organized across 68 bins. It’s chilled to a cool 48 degrees and serves as the primary storage for the restaurant’s collection of sake, Champagne, and white wine—though the staff needed to buy four additional EuroCaves that house 200 bottles apiece to hold the rest of the wine.
The Collection: The Los Angeles location boasts 250 sakes—the largest selection in all of California—and 350 wines. (New York has 450 sakes and 700 wines.) While the sheer volume is impressive, what really sets the collection apart is the ethos from which it was built. Following his experience of developing French wine lists, Fuerth showcases sake producers and regions through various vintages and price tiers. For example, the list includes three different lineups from Nizawa Sake Brewery including its least expensive table sake “Atago No Matsu,” a classic Honjozo-style sake that contains a small addition of brewer’s alcohol to extract more flavor (for $85 a bottle), to its insanely expensive Reikyo Crystal 0. A 500-milligram bottle of the hard-to-find Junmai Daiginjo sake made from a record-breaking 0.85% rice polishing ratio goes for $17,500 apiece. These diverse offerings “show the different quality levels as well as the house style of each producer and each region,” says Fuerth.”It’s a storytelling element.”
What Makes It Special: The cellar is used to tell that story in a striking 3D display. “My favorite part of the case is the right side,” says Fuerth, where he displays a lineup of bottlings that highlight the work of celebrated master brewer Noguchi Naohiko, known as the “God of Sake Brewing.” “He worked at a few historical breweries, before he went on to open Noguchi Naohiko Sake Institute. It’s a way to talk about the list in a visual way—it vertically explores the history of where he’s worked and his influence.”
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