APRIL 8, 2026 UPDATE: THE SUSHIYA HAS CONFIRMED THEIR CLOSURE.
I received a bunch of emails yesterday night from legends just like you with a notice from Mekumi confirming their closure (see below). We don’t know why, though like any closure in any industry, it’s probably a confluence of factors (Scroll to bottom for my educated guesses). Even still, this fast is quite surprising.
Ps: If anyone on the Mekumi team is reading this, people are very disappointed. That doesn’t happen unless you’ve built something special, so I hope that’s some solace in what is probably a difficult time.
Pps: Pretty cool little New York City community we’re building here. If I ever go to Valhalla – and with flights all the time, it’s a possibility – someone turn this site into a message board.
Sushidokoro Mekumi New York City is no longer able to continue operations.
At least according to what they’re telling customers whose reservations they cancelled.
The news comes just seven months after it opened.
I wrote about Mekumi in the run-up to opening because the excitement among NYC sushiphiles was palatable (what a word). Few reasons – the legend who runs the honten, the focus on seafood from Ishikawa prefecture, the general appetite for imported counters.
I really hate to write the obituary but…
If it is closing, I think there’s a few lessons to be gleaned.
This is a no duh, but competition in New York among higher-end (and higher-priced) sushi counters is fierce. It did not help Mekumi that:
- The opening was delayed
- There were initial hiccups (I wrote about my visit here, though I did principally enjoy my experience)
- There didn’t seem to be a meaningful pipeline of seafood from Ishikawa and surrounds after all.
- The legend I referenced, Takayoshi Yamaguchi, didn’t come
LET’S TALK ABOUT THAT LAST POINT
I think there are some lessons here for the armada of sushiya that are planning to open offshoots. New York City is a sushi town, sure, but really, it’s a star town. People will trade their first born for Hamilton tickets, but Lin Manuel himself better on that stage. So be careful charging the same price for an understudy, good as they may be (looking at you, Sushi Noz and Masa). Sushi Sho and Yoshino set the bar; NYC will pay, but the main man better be coming. Right, wrong, it doesn’t matter: that’s just the way it is.