All photos courtesy of Nico Schinco unless otherwise noted
An upscale sushi restaurant is opening inside the East Village Wegmans. On April 30, the supermarket will debut Next Door, a restaurant with a “fresh take on contemporary Japanese cuisine” inside the Astor Place store. Designed in a warm and inviting Art Deco-inspired style, Next Door will offer a main dining room, a champagne bar, and a sushi counter, where diners can enjoy fish sourced by Wegmans directly from Tokyo, an extensive raw bar, and small plates and entrees from the robata grill.
The 87,500-square-foot Wegmans Astor Place opened at 770 Broadway in 2023, replacing a Kmart that closed in 2021. The grocery store offers its signature affordable food items and prepared meals, including sushi, salads, sandwiches, soups, pizza, and hot Asian cuisine options.
The store is the second Wegmans location in New York City; the first opened at the Brooklyn Navy Yard in 2019. Last year, it was announced that another location would open on the Upper West Side. The first Wegmans restaurant opened in Rochester, where the company was founded, in 2002.
Designed by Timothy Corrigan in collaboration with Paula Kerr-Jarrett, Next Door features warm lighting, banquette seating, greenery, and thoughtful details like floor mosaics and gold glass panels depicting natural scenes. According to a press release, the panels, or eglomisé, depict a scene from Greek mythology, “highlighting New York as the new Atlantis through Greek god Hermes and Amphritie, wife of Poseidon.”
Created by Miotto Mosaic Art Studios, the mosaics on the floors and columns are made from Italian tile and inspired by remnants found in the space’s original ceiling and walls that were uncovered during construction.
The menu offers shareable dishes featuring ingredients sourced from Wegmans’ longstanding partners from around the world. The culinary team includes Oliver Lange, Matsu Matsuoka, and John Emerson.
Dishes will be prepared at the sushi bar and the main kitchen, which has a robata grill for Japanese-style grilling. At the sushi bar, there will be traditional and modern takes on maki, fresh nigiri, and sashimi sourced by Wegmans from the Toyosu Fish Market in Tokyo.
There’s caviar, oysters, wagyu, Tokyo-style beef tenderloin, and an all gluten-free dessert menu, including a Chocolate Miso crémeaux, a strawberry cheesecake, and seasonal mochi and fruit sorbets.
Cocktails, priced from $18 to $24, offer classics like old-fashioneds and margaritas, as well as specialty drinks, like a Snow Maiden (Suntory Roku gin, coconut, and yuzu) and a Hanami Blossom (Tito’s vodka, Aperol, Soho Lychee, raspberry, yuzu, and egg white).
Starting April 30, Next Door will be open Monday through Saturday, with a “champagne hour” from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. and dinner service from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. You can make a reservation here.
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All photos courtesy of Nico Schinco
