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From Saigon to Tokyo to Laurel Street: eleven years of training behind twelve seats.
From Saigon to Tokyo to Laurel Street
Long Nguyễn grew up in Saigon above his aunt’s seafood stall, and at nineteen took a job washing rice in a Tokyo sushi bar. He stayed eleven years, the last four cutting fish at the counter.
Kumo is the counter he always wanted: twelve seats, two seatings, fish bought each morning and rice seasoned with red vinegar, the way his teacher made it.
“The rice is warm, the fish is cold, and the piece is yours for ten seconds. That is the whole idea.”
Chef Long Nguyen
Itamae & owner
Long left Saigon at nineteen and spent eleven years behind counters in Tokyo before opening Kumo with twelve seats and a single knife roll.
Today’s fish
Written up at four, after the morning deliveries. Some pieces run out before the second seating.
- AkamiSpainLean bluefin tuna, aged four days
- ChūtoroSpainMedium-fat bluefin
- ŌtoroSpainFatty bluefin belly
- KinmedaiChibaGolden-eye snapper, skin torched
- HotateHokkaidōSea scallop, a touch of yuzu
- UniSanta BarbaraSea urchin, served on its own
- KanpachiKagoshimaAmberjack
- IkuraAlaskaSalmon roe, cured in soy