Photo by Spencer Pernikoff
Chef Nick Bognar
A new restaurant is heading to The Hill, with the focus on sushi, not spaghetti.
Photo by George Mahe
Sado (meaning “tea ceremony” in Japanese) is slated to open this fall at 5201 Shaw (at Marconi), in a corner building that was home to Giovanni’s on the Hill for more than 40 years. (An extensive fire damaged the two-story restaurant in early 2017, and it never reopened.)
Last year, chef Nick Bognar and his parents, Ann and Mike Bognar, purchased the building from Frank and Carmelo Gabriele, the sons of the late Giovanni Gabriele, who opened Giovanni’s on the Hill in 1973. Nick Bognar owns indo in Botanical Heights; his parents own sushi restaurant Nippon Tei in Ballwin, which will remain open until it transitions into the Sado space.
The menu at Sado will feature an expanded selection of Nippon Tei classics—sashimi, nigiri, and maki—as well as everyday staples, such as crab rangoon, gyoza, and tempura. The restaurant will also have one notable piece of added equipment: a Japanese charcoal grill.
Courtesy indo
Kira Webster
The 5,000-square-foot space will seat 100–120 patrons and include a traditional bar, an amenity lacking at Nippon Tei. Kira Webster, beverage director at indo, will also spearhead the cocktail, wine, and beer program at Sado. (Last month, Webster placed second in the inaugural National Sochu Competition, held in Brooklyn, New York.)
“Guests will be able to eat in the dining room, at the bar, or at the 12-seat sushi bar,” Bognar says, “and I hope to carve out a separate space for omakase (pronounced oh-MAH-kah-say),” the multi-course “trust-the-chef” experience for which he’s gained notoriety. “To be honest, omakase is what I want to do and what I like to do. I want to bring an awesome sushi bar to the city, and having a larger facility allows us to do that.”
Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
Nick Bognar's Hon Maguro (bluefin tuna) sashimi with akami, chutoro, and otoro, accompanied by assorted pickles, fresh wasabi, and shiso
Behind the Scenes
Since opening indo in Botanical Heights in mid-2019, Bognar has received national attention, with accolades in Esquire, GQ, and Food & Wine magazine, in which he was named one of the 10 best new chefs in America. In 2019 and 2020, Bognar was named a James Beard Award semifinalist in the Rising Star Chef of the Year category.
After Sado opens, Bognar says that indo will remain "open but streamlined,” and that some menu items will appear at Sado. “But indo will still be where a lot of our innovation occurs,” he adds.
At Sado, Ann Bognar will also be "involved however she wants to be," says Bognar. "I see her taking on the role of gracious proprietor, greeting guests but still keeping an eye on the floor. I think customers will come from West County just to see her.”
All of Nippon Tei’s employees have been offered positions at Sado, Bognar adds. “As we learned the past few years, it’s a crapshoot to know how many people you can hire, skilled or not. Fortunately, we have an experienced team of badasses at Nippon Tei who can make the jump to the city, so we can reach the next level and grow even further.”
Regarding the decision to leave West County, Bognar says, “We love Ballwin. We were there for 21 years, but the lease was ending, and when you get an opportunity to buy a building, like we did, you have to take advantage.”
From Spaghetti to Sushi
The move almost didn’t happen. Frank Gabriele tells SLM that after the fire in 2017, he and Carmelo planned to reopen Giovanni’s as a tribute to their father, but plans changed in 2020. “We were renovating the restaurant space,” Frank says, “and converting the second-floor banquet space into two apartments when the pandemic struck.”
The Gabrieles’ other restaurant, Il Bel Lago, endured, but the situation gave the brothers pause. “Finding employees was going to become a problem, which really concerned us,” Frank says. “We thought we might be forced to compromise what we had at Bel Lago, so we looked for possible restaurant tenants to lease the space."
The Bognars were interested in that arrangement but ended up buying the building, Frank says, and having leased apartments upstairs made the sale more attractive. "I’m 52; Carmelo is 56, and business has never been better at Bel Lago, so we’re good.”
Bognar acknowledges the paucity of non-Italian restaurants on The Hill. “Sado will obviously be different than the other fine-dining restaurants nearby," he says, "but we will expose more people to The Hill and generate additional visits. I’m stoked to be close to places like Charlie Gitto’s and Pizzeria da Gloria. There’s room for all of us.”
