Sushi Momento Debuts at Cleveland Circle

Meals are an art form for restaurateur Jack Huang. One that he has perfected in his decades in the Boston food scene creating an empire of Japanese cuisine with the Basho Japanese Brasserie brand, Douzo Modern Japanese Restaurant, and Lounge downtown, Fugakyu Japanese Cuisine formerly in Brookline, and many others. Huang’s latest venture, Sushi Momento, opened at the end of December 2018 on the Brookline border of Cleveland Circle.

For Huang, this is a kind of homecoming. He opened his very first Boston area restaurant venture, Fugakyu, in Brookline 25 years ago and has always loved the neighborhood. “It’s a suburban and urban combination that really inspires me,” says Huang. “This is what America really is.” He designed Sushi Momento like an art gallery, with very clean, minimalistic elements, to make the food the centerpiece of the experience.

The menu offers a new perspective of Japanese cuisine by placing the sushi offerings in the back of the list and providing a spectrum of first courses split into categories like “Hot,” “Cold,” “Rice & Udon” and “Fish & Meat.” Huang says the number one misconception of Japanese cuisine is that it’s just sushi. “You know what you’re getting with sushi,” he says. “But before you get to that there are things you can play around with, individually or for the entire table.”

Additionally, he and Chef Kenji Wong have shaken up traditional flavors and ingredients. For example, they offer a grilled avocado with pickled wasabi ponzu, rather than relegating avocado to sushi rolls. The bar menu has a similar philosophy using fresh ingredients for the seasonally changing beverages. Sushi Momento also offers a robust list of mocktails for kids and designated drivers. With ingredients like ginger, matcha, and fresh mint, it’s hard even to notice there’s no alcohol in them.

“People have different preferences with nutrition,” says Huang. “The idea is that you can custom design whatever you feel like at any given time.” Overall the menu offers delicious meals that are also healthy. Chef Wong sources fresh ingredients, many of them local, and prepares them with just a few, perfect ingredients in each dish to make the natural flavors, and nutrients, shine.
This is just the beginning. Huang says he’d like to introduce takeaway picnic baskets that guests can take down to the Chestnut Hill Reservation on warm afternoons. He’s still flushing out the idea, but it would likely include a basket with all the necessary silverware and place settings, sushi and other foodie goodies, and wine glasses for whatever beverage you bring along. This is just another way Huang is celebrating the neighborhood.

“It’s the marriage of foreign culture with local culture, that’s what I’d like to accomplish,” says Huang. “It’s the happiness. Satisfying [the guests’] needs, that’s always our goal. What can I give other people to make them forget about their problems?”

By Celina Colby

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