Brookside Poultry introduces sushi restaurant with a pop-up — and adds steak to menu
Brookside Poultry Co. hasn’t left its original home in East Brookside — yet. But its replacement has already moved in.
Brookside Poultry got its start in this little spot at 408 E. 63rd St. a couple of years ago. It has been so successful that it will soon move down the street to a larger spot and add a second restaurant, Brookside Beef Co.
With the pandemic crisis, that move has been pushed backed a bit.
So Brookside Poultry has put its tables and chairs in storage and is now just doing curbside and take-out. Brookside Sushi, which was set to take the space for a mid-March opening, has temporarily set up operations in the dining room.
Brookside Poultry customers come in to pick up their order and see a sign with a chicken and an arrow pointing to the right, a fish and an arrow pointing to the left.
“They are like, ‘What is this?’ ” said Brady Battmer, a partner in Brookside Sushi. “Chicken and sushi kind of don’t go together. But most of our customers are customers of Brookside Poultry, so it is working out. Everyone is trying to get through this together.”
Battmer, Tyler Burns and Salvador Cerritos-Ortiz are friends who got together to open the new sushi restaurant. Cerritos-Ortiz has been in the sushi business for about 30 years, including long stints at Kabuki.
The menu includes the Brookside Dragon Roll with tempura shrimp, freshwater eel cucumber, avocado and asparagus, and the Vivian Roll (named after Cerritos-Ortiz’s daughter) with chopped tuna, yellowtail, salmon, halibut, avocado, asparagus, jalapeno, flying fish eggs, spicy sauce and spicy mayo topped with sriracha sauce.
Most rolls are $11 to $13, but the California Roll and Vegetable Roll are $7. The pop-up also has miso soup, seaweed salad, squid salad and edamame. It is currently open for to-go and curbside pickup from 4 to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.
Charles d’Ablaing, owner of Brookside Poultry, also has added sirloin steak to the menu as an intro to Brookside Beef Co.
