The first East Coast outpost of Tyson Cole's Austin-born Uchi, opened November 2025 on the ground floor of the Josephine high-rise at 1620 Sansom Street, near Rittenhouse Square. Cole, who won the James Beard Award for Best Chef: Southwest in 2011, founded the original in 2003; this is his Hai Hospitality group's seventh Uchi city. Chef de cuisine Ford Sonnenberg, a French-trained, Austin-raised six-year company veteran, runs a kitchen that prizes invention over orthodoxy: the high-acid Hama Chili yellowtail, Machi Cure smoked yellowtail with Marcona almond, flounder with candied quinoa. Both dining room and sushi bar offer the trademark somakase, a guest-budgeted tasting. The room runs dark and lounge-like, energetic rather than hushed. Come for confident, fusion-minded sushi and a chef-guided tasting on your own terms.