RESTAURANT NEWS | MIDWEST
Jason Morimoto Built Nakama in Milwaukee Around Sushi and Vinyl
NAKAMA | MAP | INSTAGRAM
By Jamie Dutton
6:44 a.m. CT, June 14, 2026
AUTHOR BIO: With family spread across the Midwest and a job that has her constantly in airports, Jamie Dutton travels the Heartland regularly. She’s partial to BPTs a Bell's.
Jason Morimoto learned to make sushi at home, then spent years turning that obsession into a career. Nakama is the Milwaukee restaurant where all of it finally comes together.
The Milwaukee chef has turned a former coffee shop on the Lower East Side into three related experiences: a 14-course omakase counter, a hand-roll bar, and an upstairs listening lounge inspired by Japan’s jazz kissa. The soundtrack comes from vinyl. The fish arrives one course at a time.
Morimoto was born into Puerto Rican and Japanese cultures and spent his early childhood in Puerto Rico before moving to Wisconsin. He worked as a machinist and pharmacy technician while teaching himself sushi, then built a career at Screaming Tuna. His win on Masaharu Morimoto’s Roku competition gave him the national recognition; Nakama gives him a restaurant shaped around his own ideas.
At the omakase counter, two nightly seatings move through sustainably sourced bluefin tuna, A5 Wagyu, and whatever Morimoto decides is ready for the spotlight. The $140 experience is less formal than the price might suggest, with conversation, sake, and vinyl treated as part of dinner rather than background.
The hand-roll bar offers a shorter route in. Scallop comes with clam-miso nori butter, ikura, and yuzu salt; hamachi gets crispy garlic and scallions; New Orleans shrimp arrives with kewpie and yuzu kosho oil. Small plates include Japanese sea bream escabeche, chutoro with tosazu and shiso, and roasted cabbage with sesame and maitake.
Morimoto built Nakama with Cristian Vega of Screaming Tuna and beverage partners Dan Beres and Tripper Duval. The name refers to the bond among teammates working toward the same goal.
Before Nakama served its first course, about 1,200 reservations had already filled the books through June. So in Milwaukee, that goal now has a sushi counter, a stack of records, and considerably more demand than seats.
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