"I don't know when we're opening," says proprietor Cizuka Seki, citing issues with gas service that make an exact target date a bit hard to pinpoint at the moment.

Seki is opening the restaurant with her father, Hiroshi Seki, a veteran chef of some 50 years who spent the most recent two decades running his own eatery outside St. Louis. "This is his baby," the younger Seki says, explaining that cooking in D.C., as opposed to the Midwestern suburbs, will allow her dad to "be creative and do whatever he wants rather than having to make food that he has to tweak to American tastes."

Like many astute restaurateurs these days, the father-daughter team bought the building. Public records show the $450,000 sale closed last July.

Seki does divulge a few details about the place: Plans for the first floor include a nine-seat counter looking out on an open kitchen. "Whoever is lucky enough to sit there gets to be served directly by my dad," she says. The second floor will serve as the primary dining room.

The menu hasn't quite been finalized. "But," she says, "it'll be food that he and I love, things we want to eat when we drink." Expect udon and soba noodle dishes (the latter variety will be shipped directly from Japan). But, no sushi (raw sashimi courses certainly, but no nigiri or maki.) No ramen, either (at least not at first, anyway). And, no bartender. "There's no space for a bar," she points out. But there will be drinks, including beer, sake and a curated selection of shōchū, a Japanese spirit that Seki hopes to become a sort of house specialty.

Expect a more modern look than your typical dark wooden izakaya-style joint in Japan, or even New York.

The overall goal, Seki says, is to offer the sort of high-quality cuisine at a mid-range price point that D.C. generally lacks. "I do think we're filling a gap that doesn't exist for casual Japanese dining," she says.

Photo by Chris Shott

Photo by davescunningplan/Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

Jason Zheng is hankering to get his hands on some fugu. That’s Japanese for pufferfish or blowfish, perhaps the world’s most notorious seafood. Sure, it’s potentially poisonous. If prepared improperly, it contains a neurotoxin that’s reportedly about a thousand times more deadly than cyanide. (And that’s the conservative figure.) But it’s also supposed to be delicious.

“In Japan, people shovel it in,” says Zheng.

The short-statured 32-year-old head sushi chef at The Hamilton has been dicing and dishing raw fish for more than a decade. But even he’s not qualified to handle the dubious Asian delicacy. So he’s going to need some help before he can put it on the menu. Legally speaking. “We’re trying to hire a guy who has a license in Japan—you need a license to cut that type of fish,” he says.

Generally, the puffer’s toxic parts are removed before it’s shipped overseas. It’s illegal in Europe and only a handful of places in the U.S. dare to serve it. In the District, at least one spot, Kaz Sushi Bistro, has previously plated the infamous fish. The Hamilton boldly hopes to join that exclusive club. “We want to give it a shot,” says Zheng.

It’s a risky move for Clyde’s Restaurant Group, which owns and operates The Hamilton. And not just because of the possibility, if low probability, that patrons could become stricken with tetrodotoxin paralysis. In fact, serving sushi of any kind is an entirely new concept for Clyde’s, a company better known for grass-fed burgers and jumbo lump crab cakes at its eponymous eateries in the D.C. area. (The Hamilton serves that stuff, too.) Clyde’s also owns the hallowed Old Ebbitt Grill and serves more high-end grub at Georgetown’s esteemed 1789.

But none of those joints is known for its exotic aquatics.

The Hamilton, its owners say, isn’t about playing it safe. Spanning some 37,000 square feet, seating up to 850 diners and operating 24/7 (with the lone exception of Christmas Day), the restaurant—which also includes a vast downstairs concert hall—is the group’s most ambitious project to date. And to hear Clyde’s president Tom Meyer tell it, the fare needs to be just as daring.

That’s why he says he’s enlisted Zheng, who previously made his maki at celebrity chef Susur Lee’s lounge-y hotel restaurant Zentan in Thomas Circle. The new hire has been tasked with rolling out something completely different, at least for Clyde’s. Company brass is expecting Zheng to push the seaweed-wrapped envelope beyond the ubiquitous California roll. “I want him to really do hot shit,” says Meyer. “I want the live uni, I want the abalone, I want the toro.”

(For the record, California rolls remain on the menu, alongside other non-hot shit like salmon and cream cheese rolls. No one ever said you could please 850 eaters with abalone alone.)

Meyer seems more impressed with Zheng’s out-of-town credentials than with Zentan’s presence on the chef’s CV. Zheng earlier wielded his shiny cutlery at Blue Ribbon in New York—a favorite of Meyer’s. “They were kind of the first people to put a sushi bar in a restaurant that’s kind of, you know, cool,” he says. The Chinese-born Zheng, a former busboy turned toque, helped open three locations of the upscale Big Apple sushi chain.

But Zheng says he’s never worked at, much less seen, a restaurant as massive as The Hamilton. “It’s a big job,” he says.

Behind the 12-stool sushi bar, adorned with bronze statues of Japanese kitchen gods, Zheng now has more underlings doing prep work than he had in his entire sushi-rolling crew at Zentan. Some 30 staffers are assigned to sushi service alone, including one guy who does nothing all day but make rice from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Zheng, it turns out, is a stickler for doing right by the tiny white grains, spurning D.C. tap water for the bottled spring variety in its preparation. He declines to say which brand. The chef insists the fancy mizu enhances the flavor.

Just one week after the behemoth eatery’s Dec. 18 opening, Zheng, whose English is not nearly as bad as he claims, told me he’d been cranking out about 100 pounds of tuna each day. And that was before the first live musical performances began downstairs, where he would be operating a second sushi bar. (Sushi is served throughout the entire venue, from 11 a.m. until 2 a.m. daily.) “You have to use a walkie-talkie to communicate [between the two sashimi stations],” he says. “We’re not used to that.”

Likewise, the logistics of running an 850-seat restaurant also require some departures from the ordinary. You can sit right there at that intimate sushi bar and watch the chef work, for instance, but don’t try ordering from him or anyone else behind the counter. Servers still circulate to take orders, just as if you were sitting at a table.

Right now, you won’t find fugu or any other particularly unusual fish on the menu at The Hamilton. Zheng says the kitchen crew needs some time to get settled before rolling out more innovative offerings.

For instance, the Tasmanian ocean trout, priced at $7 for two pieces, only sounds exotic. Its white-marbled pinkish flesh looks almost identical to salmon. And it doesn’t taste much different, either. Plated side by side with slices of the more common upstream swimmer, the sea trout is, however, a slightly brighter hue and comes topped with tiny dark caviar. (Zheng says he served the same stuff at Zentan.)

Meanwhile, Zheng’s playful take on fish and chips, featuring tempura, sea bass, and crab topped with sweet potato flakes and a tartar-esque sauce for $12, certainly seems accessible enough for the crowd at, say, a Clyde’s outpost in one of Washington’s less sophisticated suburbs.

The hot shit Meyer touted? None yet. A pair of spicy scallops, priced at $8, appear as bright orange blobs in their green wrappers, less offensive to the palate than the eyes. The advertised inferno of an eel-covered, spicy tuna-injected Fire Dragon ($13) is virtually extinguished in a mush of avocado. The Tiger Fur (also $13) similarly proves tamer than its name, with slivers of tuna, salmon and yellowtail wrapped up in green-striped kelp.

The Rock ‘n’ Roll (again $13), which contains a fried oyster and comes topped with yellowtail and jalapeño, is a slight variation on another Zentan standby, Zheng says, which incorporated crispy calamari.

“Come back in two months,” Zheng says. “You’re going to see it’s very different.” Among other things, Zheng plans to put out plates from the creepy-crawly category. Just imagine: live Santa Barbara shrimp, live sea urchin, and live abalone to go with your live music.

“This is just the beginning,” he says.

Photos by Darrow Montgomery

The Hamilton, 600 14th St. NW, (202) 787-1000

Eatery tips? Food pursuits? Send suggestions to hungry@washingtoncitypaper.com.

Fish & chips (the sushi kind) at The Hamilton

The guys at Taylor Gourmet pulled-off a bit of a fast one on Tuesday with an advertised "mayoral ribbon cutting" at their new shop on 14th Street NW. D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray didn't actually attend. Instead, services were conducted by some "mayors" of Foursquare. Whatever the hell that means. “We got a good laugh," co-owner Casey Patten tells Washingtonian.

Now comes word that Clyde's Restaurant Group will be holding its own splashy ribbon-cutting ceremony next week at its new downtown D.C. behemoth, The Hamilton. (Read Y&H's early take here.) Featured speakers include not just the mayor (the real one), but also D.C. Council Chairman Kwame Brown and Ward2 Councilmember Jack Evans. The ceremony is scheduled for Monday morning, Jan. 9.

The Hamilton's executive chef, Brian Stickel, with a tray of sticky buns

"Wouldn't this be a cool place to grab a burger at lunchtime?" asks Tom Meyer, president of Clyde's Restaurant Group. He's leaning against a long wooden counter running the length of a massive window overlooking bustling 14th Street NW in downtown D.C.

We're hanging out in the main bar area of The Hamilton, the Clyde's group's new sprawling 37,000-square-foot restaurant and live music venue that is scheduled to open for dinner service on Dec. 18 and stay open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with the lone exception of Christmas Day.

The decor of this harmonic and gastronomic behemoth is essentially summed up in two elements: (1) a veritable forest's worth of shiny dark wood, and (2) a whole bunch of artworks depicting a whole bunch of birds, from handsome framed paintings of  eagles and other winged creatures adorning the walls to whimsical geese mobiles hanging in the hallway.

I simply had to ask, What's with all the birds? "I don't have a real reason," Meyer says. "I mean, they're just kind of cool." He later points out one creepy bird whose beady little eyes seem to follow your every move as you pass down the corridor.

The food, meanwhile, cannot be summed up so simply. The latest draft of menu offerings spans 14 pages, broken down by meal time and specific dining area.

A few notable bites: the place will serve sushi—a first for the vast Clyde's empire. At a 12-seat sushi bar, flanked by shiny statues of Japanese kitchen gods, former Zentan chef Jason Zheng will be dishing up stuff like sea urchin and Tasmanian ocean trout. Meyer seems pretty adamant about pushing the raw fish envelope and not just serving the same ol' boring California and Philadelphia rolls.  "I want him to really do hot shit," Meyer says. "I want the live uni, I want the abalone, I want the toro."

Patrons can also order a $14 bowl of house-made ramen noodles with pork belly, served up in hand-crafted bowls by a local artisan.

Another tantalizing menu item: hanger steak poutine, priced at $21 and made with house-cut fries and short-rib gravy, topped with slices of grilled beef.

One notable menu omission: no oysters to speak of. What's the point? Heralded mollusk mecca Old Ebbitt Grill, another Clyde's property, is right around the corner.

In yet another first for Clyde's, the Hamilton's army of servers (total workforce: around 300) will carry hand-held electronic devices to take your order, as well as tiny printers to run your bill.

Down an intricately sound-proofed staircase is where the music happens. The cavernous basement, which sort of recalls B.B. King's Blues Club in New York,  features a semi-circular stage and, of course, the most newfangled state-of-the-art sound system of the day. "It's real high-tech," Meyer tells me. "You know, sound travels not so fast, like the crack of a bat at a baseball game. But these speakers are timed so the sound hits everybody at the same time."

Legendary gospel singer Mavis Staples will serve as the new venue's splashy opening act on Jan. 19.

The concert hall component has its own separate menu, consisting of charcuterie, sushi, pizza, sliders and other finger foods. The room will offer table seating for 260 and bar stools to accommodate another 100.

Once it's finished, the walls will be lined with portraits—no, not more birds, thankfully, but rock stars. Meyer rattles off some of the names: Bob Dylan, Bob Marley, Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain, Jerry Garcia, Elvis Presley, Tupac Shakur, Janis Joplin, Frank Zappa, and The Ramones.

No Ian MacKaye? "I don't know who that is," Meyer says. "Who's that?" [For the Clyde's boss' benefit, MacKaye is sort of the godfather of the D.C. punk rock scene.]  "Is he alive?" Meyer asks. "Most of the people here are dead except for Dylan."

Photos by Chris Shott

Photo courtesy of Kushi

The Hamilton is planning to stay open 24 hours, with sushi served nightly until 2 a.m. "I don't really expect it to be full of people on Tuesday at five o'clock in the morning," Meyer says. "But how often have you been out at one o'clock and said, 'Where can we get something to eat?' And everybody's like, 'Oh, I don't know. Everything's closed.'"

Meyer expects peak late-night crowds between midnight and 2 a.m. "I have a feeling I'm going to be pleasantly surprised at the 24-hour thing," he says. "If I do it for a year and it doesn't work, I just stop doing it."

Photo by Milko Krachounov/GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2

Sticky Rice

Photo by Think Draw/Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

Its gimmick: Diners can build their own maki rolls the same way they would customize their burrito bowls at Chipotle.

Washingtonian previously had the scoop on the place. On Thursday, WaPo's Justin Rude takes us down the ordering line:

Grab a checklist-style menu and choose fillings for your custom maki roll. Protein choices include favorites like spicy tuna, as well as salmon and a vegetarian option. Follow that up with a few veggie fillings, a sauce and optional dry topping. Hand your sheet to a cashier, who will helpfully suggest sides and a drink (including fruit-infused iced green tea), and then wait for the small team of maki-rollers (with the help of an automatic rice-and-seaweed-binder and a roll-slicer) to complete your order.

Photo by DinkY2K/Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

According to an investigation by the D.C.-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, much of the blame lies with the black market, widespread fraud, and a lack of official oversight. You can read more of ICIJ's Looting the Seas investigation here. There is also a companion documentary, recently aired on BBC World News, which you can order here.

Why should you care about the collapse of bluefin stocks? Consider what the ICIJ wrote:

Biologists warn that at stake is more than the mere loss of a favorite source of sushi. Bluefin tuna, they say, are near the top of the food chain and their demise will have dire consequences for marine ecosystems. Without large predators, entire food chains may erode, leaving the seas overrun by millions of jelly fish and micro-organisms.