A High-End Japanese Restaurant Is Opening Behind Wm. Mulherin’s

Add Hiroki, an upscale Japanese restaurant with a focus on omakase, to the list of Fishtown openings. If you’ve got plans for an eatery in Philly, this neighborhood is the place to be. It already has a destination Lebanese restaurant in Suraya, which just opened its spacious outdoor patio this week. There’s Cheu Fishtown and, from the same owners, the about-to-debut Nunu. Filipino BYOB Sarvida opens its doors this weekend. American BYOB Elwood and seafood spot Aether should start serving this fall. Michael Solomonov may be turning a warehouse in neighboring Kensington into an Israeli hotspot. And now comes word of Hiroki, sharing a building with Wm. Mulherin’s Sons at 1355 N. Front Street. Both restaurants are from Method Co., which also owns a chic four-room boutique hotel upstairs.

Hiroki takes its name from its chef, Hiroki Fujiyama. Fujiyama was the longtime head sushi chef at Morimoto, the 17-year-old Japanese restaurant on 7th and Chestnut from Masaharu Morimoto and Stephen Starr. He plans to focus on omakase menus at his new restaurant, which is shooting for a November opening.

A tipster keeping an eye on Hiroki’s construction noted an impressive circular entrance going up. It’s on the back side of the Wm. Mulherin’s double-wide building, fronting Lee Street (an alley street). Steve Powers’ Kurt Vile mural is on the side of the building.

Method Co. was in the news earlier this year when Wm. Mulherin’s Sons’ chef Chris Painter, a partner with Randall Cook and David Grasso in Method Co., left following multiple sexual harassment allegations against him. He’s no longer connected to the company. Cook and Grasso also own the Roost apartment-hotels in Center City.

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