James Beard Award-nominated duo to open a new dining concept near their recently launched Sarasota restaurant.
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After recently opening a restaurant in the Sarasota area, a pair of James Beard Award-nominated restaurateurs will soon debut another dining concept adjacent to it.
Yūgen will open in University Town Center at 190 N. Cattlemen Road in December, according to a press release. The restaurant will offer a Japanese chef’s counter experience, or omakase, which is Japanese for “I’ll leave it up to you.”
The 10-seat, reservations-only Yūgen will be in a hidden 1,000-square-foot dining room adjacent to Zōtō, a Japanese restaurant offering sushi and other raw offerings as well as grilled dishes that opened earlier this fall in UTC.
Who’s the team behind Yūgen?
Both Yūgen and Zōtō were created by Jimmy and Johnny Tung, who were semifinalists for Outstanding Restaurateur in the 2023 James Beard Awards, the food world’s equivalent of the Oscars. Their other restaurants include Bento Asian Kitchen + Sushi, a Florida-based chain serving a variety of Asian dishes such as its namesake bento boxes that formerly had a Sarasota location in the space now occupied by Zōtō, and Kōsen in Tampa, which has earned a Michelin star for two consecutive years and also has a chef’s counter.
“Many of our guests making the trip from Sarasota to Tampa for Kōsen’s chef’s counter encouraged us to bring this style of dining to their city, showing there was a real demand for it locally,” Johnny Tung said in a statement. “Seeing that kind of response to Kōsen made it clear for us that we needed to expand in the Tampa Bay area. With its world-class beaches and rising reputation as a travel destination, Sarasota felt like the perfect next stop.”
The menu will be driven by executive chef Atsushi Okawara, who was born in Iwate, Japan and whose resume includes the Michelin-starred restaurants The Den in Miami Beach and Kenzo in Napa Valley. At Yūgen, he will present a kaiseki menu — a multi-course meal of hot and cold Japanese dishes that showcases a diverse range of cooking methods and is about the entire sensory experience rather than just one type of dish.
“Kaiseki allows me to showcase the full spectrum of Japanese cuisine, beyond just sushi,” Okawara said in a statement. “The dining experience will still be about trust — leaving your evening in the hands of the chef.”
The restaurant’s team will also include general manager Janet Kim, who brings years of experience managing New York City’s three-Michelin-star Masa; Benjamin Coutts, 2023’s Michelin Guide Florida Sommelier Award Winner, who’ll curate the wine and sake program; and Zōtō’s beverage director Daniel Lugo, who’ll oversee Yūgen’s cocktail and beverage program.
Guests can sign up for an invitation to preview week by joining the waitlist atyugenfl.com.
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