Takohachi Japanese Restaurant looks to open within the week at Penrose Square

Takohachi Japanese Restaurant at Penrose Square is planning to finally open within the week, owner Tsutomu Nakano tells ARLnow.

Back in July, the four-year-old sushi restaurant was forced to close its location at Westmont Shopping Center on Columbia Pike due to the shopping center’s impending redevelopment. However, plans were in place for the restaurant to move up the Pike to Penrose Square with a hoped-for opening date in September.

But the restaurant still wasn’t open in November, due to supply chain issues and delays in getting county permits.

While the Takohachi is finally readying itself to start serving in January, hiring employees has continued to be a challenge (something that’s been the case across the region and country). Nakano says he’s still looking to hire, particularly servers.

Takohachi Japanese Restaurant is known for its sushi, tempura, and Japanese food. The interior of the new space is quite a bit larger than the previous iteration, with a wooden bar in the middle with sectioned-off seating areas to the left and right.

Nakano, who is the chef and owner, moved to America from Japan about two decades ago and opened his first restaurant in Bethesda, Maryland. In 2017, he opened Takohachi at Westmont Shopping Center. However, only two years later, the Arlington County Board approved a redevelopment plan that included a six-story mixed-use building with 250 apartments and 22,500 square feet of retail space.

The sushi restaurant and a number of other longtime businesses there have since closed. The shopping center is now rubble, demolished earlier in 2021.

Takohachi did get a reprieve, thanks in part to the Columbia Pike Partnership, which assisted the restaurant’s move a few blocks away to 2501 Columbia Pike.

It’s been more than two years since that space was occupied, with the last tenant being Josephine’s Italian Kitchen. Prior to that, Marble & Rye and Red Rocks were in the location. None of the three restaurants made it more than three years there, though.

Nakano says the reason he wanted to continue to keep Takohachi on Columbia Pike is because of the “regulars” who helped support the business over the years.

Along with this new Arlington location, Nakano also owns another Takohachi in Centreville which opened a few months ago.