Vegan Sushi Is Taking Over Manhattan

Beyond Sushi, the plant-based, vegan, grab-and-go restaurant is planning two more locations for spring. The first will debut in April in FIDI's City Acres Market at 70 Pine St. while the second will open in May: a larger, full-service restaurant at 134 West 37th St., with a liquor license.

"It will be about seven times the size of our Union Square location,” says Tali Vaknin, who owns Beyond Sushi with her husband and the chef, Guy Vaknin. “And we will have phenomenal drinks, including a really cool muddled sake menu.”

The Vaknins opened their first fish-free sushi spot on 14th Street on July 1, 2012. Having opened two more Manhattan restaurants since, there’s no stopping them. In addition to the two restaurants opening this spring, the Vaknins are shooting to open another in Midtown East before the end of the year and three more in Manhattan in 2018.

Atal Design Group will be responsible for the new look at the larger space, which will include metal and repurposed elements. As for dining, favorites will be on offer, along with specials and bar snacks.

Prior to his Beyond Sushi days, Guy attended culinary school at the Institute of Culinary Education in New York and then served as executive chef at his father's kosher catering company, Esprit Events. Over four years, he experimented with creative ways to stock the company's sushi station and came up with a menu of fruit- and vegetable-based dishes — the foundation for the restaurant.