Fortunately, husband-and-wife restaurateurs Phillip Frankland Lee (chef) and Margarita Kallas-Lee (pastry chef) don’t like to follow rules. If they did, we probably wouldn’t be enjoying Sushi by Scratch Restaurants: Miami, the latest entry in the city's rapidly expanding omakase category.
Located in Coconut Grove’s historic Stirrup House, Sushi by Scratch Restaurants: Miami is part of the California-based Scratch Restaurants Group. Lee and Kallas-Lee opened the first Sushi by Scratch Restaurants: Los Angeles seven years ago, close to where Lee was born and raised in the San Fernando Valley. It’s a place, he says, where “there are more sushi bars than Tokyo.” It’s also where, at age 13, influenced by dining on omakase with his father, he decided he wanted to be a sushi chef, despite not being Japanese.
Indeed, Lee says, Sushi by Scratch Restaurants: Los Angeles debuted to what he calls “backlash” partly because of his ethnicity. The other reason for an initially reserved response was the unconventional craft and presentation of his 17-course omakase. However, this is precisely what sets Sushi by Scratch apart. “Instead of ‘what can I get for you,’ it’s ‘here’s what I’m really excited to share with you,” Lee explains. “We think of it as the guests hanging in the kitchen with the chefs. It’s like a workshop model.”
Wild-caught Korean escolar with wasabi and salmon caviar
Photo courtesy of Sushi by Scratch Restaurants
Two of the signature items make up the “one-two punch.” They're a pair of complementary plates that incorporate the very non-sushi-like bone marrow. The first features a roasted bone marrow nigiri seasoned with homemade soy sauce, sea salt, and freshly grated wasabi root. The second is Japanese eel with salt made from matcha green tea, mushrooms, and kelp, cooked in bone marrow aburi-style (with a blowtorch). It’s then steeped in soy, ponzu, lemon, sea salt, and poblano pepper yuzu kosho.
Meanwhile, customers are encouraged to chat with each other as well as get to know the bartender, who greets you with a welcome cocktail. The convivial atmosphere urges a lifting of the veil, demystifying the reverent “our eyes are watching the sushi god” experience. The end result is not exactly a knife-juggling Benihana-meets-omakase show, but it’s certainly less stuffy than some omakase dens.
“We make it fun and cordial but still take it seriously at the same time,” Lee says. “Our first year, once we won everyone over, we figured if we can stand out in LA, we can stand out anywhere.”
Lee and Kallas-Lee’s success with Sushi by Scratch Restaurants: Los Angeles was no doubt assisted by the fact that they were already standing out with their first restaurant, Scratch Bar & Kitchen, opened in 2013. There, as the name suggests, everything is made in-house. That continues to be true for every venue the pair opens, whether it’s the soy sauce and vinegar in the Sushi by Scratch Restaurants (Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Cedar Creek, and Miami), the pasta and bread in the 17-course Pasta Bar by Scratch concepts (Los Angeles and Austin), or the butter and cheese in the original Scratch Bar & Kitchen.
It also actually helps, rather than hinders, that the duo work closely with both sides of their families. The oldest of six kids, Lee has one sister installed as CFO of their company and another as his assistant. A brother, also a chef, headed up the Sushi by Scratch Restaurants: Montecito restaurant in Santa Barbara that won a Michelin star in 2021. (He is now moving on to do his own thing.) And Kallas-Lee’s father builds out all their restaurants. “Why hire other people when we can hire family?” Lee asks.
Why indeed? With such trusted team members in place, Lee and Kallas-Lee live an intentional, nomadic life, opening restaurants only in cities that they love. They dwell there until they’ve established the place and their chefs have gotten their footing, then move on. At first, they kept their businesses in California. Then their trek eastward began, first landing them in Austin and now in Miami — as has seemed to be the trend for just about everyone — where they’ve signed a one-year lease in Brickell and become first-time parents to a baby girl.
Along the way, they also successfully made it through the lockdown portion of the pandemic by developing an omakase-at-home model and picked up another Michelin star in 2021 for their Pasta Bar by Scratch Restaurants: Los Angeles site.
So much for keeping it simple those first years. But according to Lee, that’s been the plan all along. “We have the concept and the brand,” he says. “Our goal over the next decade is to become the most Michelin-starred, multi-unit concept out there. We intend to be the next [L’Atelier de Joël] Robuchon.”
You could choose worse role models to emulate, of course. And Lee is well aware of how arrogant that can sound and how ambitious that goal really is. with a waitlist that had over 15,000 diners before even opening — for a restaurant that accommodates 30 per night (three seatings of ten each) — perhaps Sushi by Scratch: Miami is on the right track to be the next star in the Michelin pantheon.
"I remind myself and the team every night that 'this is ours to lose' and how very easy it is to get complacent," Lee says. "Now it's about not phoning it in. Now it's about showing why we’re fucking worth this."
Sushi by Scratch Restaurants: Miami. 3232 Charles St., Coconut Grove; sushibyscratchrestaurants.com. Dinner costs $165 per person plus tax and service. There are also two beverage pairing options: $85 (featuring three different sakes, two cocktails, and one beer) and $110 (featuring six different pours of sake). Dinner is served Wednesday through Sunday. There are three nightly seatings at 5, 7:15, and 9:30 p.m. The waitlist starts from scratch (pun intended) on the first of every month for the following month.
