A defining L.A. sushi bar relocates — with cocktails

MORIHIRO MOVES INTO AN ICONIC VICTOR HEIGHTS BUILDING, AND STAR BARTENDER HAN SUK CHO HELMS THE DRINKS

- BY BILL ADDISON

The Elysian is a mod apartment building originally designed in the 1960s by architect William Pereira.

The original LACMA campus also numbered among Pereira’s projects, as did my favorite skyscraper on the planet, the TransAmerica Building in San Francisco. This one sits on a hill, overlooking Sunset Boulevard in Victor Heights, the small neighborhood abutting Elysian Park and bordering Echo Park and Chinatown. Recently, I timed my drive to a lull in traffic after the start of a Dodgers game to visit the Elysian’s new ground-floor tenant, Morihiro, and a couple major shifts the relocation brings: a walk-in cocktail bar and an a la carte component to the menu.

To sushi wonks, Morihiro “Mori” Onodera needs no introduction. He arrived in Los Angeles 40 years ago this year, after training in sushi bars for a couple of years in Tokyo. Working at seminal L.A. sushi groundbreakers like Matsuhisa and Katsu, and running Mori Sushi in West Los Angeles for 11 years beginning in 2000, he’s been a guiding hand in defining how Angelenos perceive and enjoy omakase.

After a break from restaurant ownership, he returned with tiny Morihiro in Atwater Village in November 2020. Columnist Jenn Harris and I ranked it No. 6 on the current edition of the 101 Best Restaurants in Los Angeles guide.

Onodera has never been afraid of change. Which may be why neither Harris nor I were overly surprised at first when we heard the news sitting together at Onodera’s Atwater omakase counter at the end of August (yes, researching our next edition of the 101 guide, arriving in early December). His hands forming nigiri in a finger ballet, he slipped into casual conversation that he was moving the restaurant. Our eyebrows shot up. Then he smiled mysteriously.

“We will have a bar,” he said. “We are bringing on Han Suk Cho.”

“Whoa, you stole Han from Kato?!” I shouted reflexively. His staff burst out laughing.