Saison Is Hosting a Two-Month Sushi Pop-Up

Three-Michelin-starred Saison has played extensively with its offerings since opening, trying out everything from bar bites menus to dinners in a private test kitchen. But Joshua Skenes has just rolled out what might be his most interesting experiment yet: he's essentially invited another chef, Jiro Lin, to do a two-month pop-up inside Saison's space, while the restaurant's regular service continues simultaneously.

According to Tablehopper, Lin, an extensively trained sushi chef who worked for 11 years at casual Castro sushi spot Hamano, caught Skenes' eye for his dedication to the craft, and was invited to come do his thing at the restaurant's eight-seat chef's counter. Lin's "modern kaiseki" menu starts at $220 a head, with special beverage pairings from Mark Bright available for an additional $100. Diners can reserve (and pay) in advance by phoning Saison; Lin will be serving Tuesday-Saturday from now until May 30th. Considering that Skenes knows his way around some seriously involved fish butchery techniques, any sushi chef that catches his eye is bound to be an impressive one.

Tablehopper also notes that Saison has a new GM, Alicia Boyes, who comes to the restaurant after a seven-year stint at New York's Per Se. Interestingly, that makes her North America's only female GM of a three-Michelin-starred restaurant (which hopefully won't be the case forever). There's also been another new hire in the kitchen: Christopher Bleidorn, formerly the chef de cuisine of Atelier Crenn, joined Saison last month. He's previously cooked at Benu and Alinea. Despite the recent departure of chef de cuisine Mitch Lienhard, a rep for Saison says that Bleidorn hasn't taken over that gig: "His future role is still being defined/determined."