Brian Slattery Photos
Seikichi Muto, owner and chef at Sonobana on Dixwell in Hamden, took a small ball of rice in a gloved hand and deftly made it just the right shape to accept a piece of raw, tender yellowtail. He did the same with with piece of salmon, and with a piece of tuna — as he has been doing for 34 years in the same location, and now during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Muto is originally from the city of Sapporo, Japan, but got into the fish business in the city of Nagano. Before that, he worked in the Unification Church. It was in the mid-1980s, and “Reverend Moon” — that is, Sun Myung Moon — “was concerned about food in the future for humanity,” Muto said. He suggested that people move more toward seafood, and that America, where Moon had been living since 1972, should develop more of an appetite for it. He decided to start a seafood business in the United States.
“My church asked, ‘Are you OK to go to the United States and start a sushi restaurant?’” Muto recalled. “‘I will do it,’” Muto said. But he had no seafood or restaurant experience.
Take-out and delivery orders will prove crucial to the ability of local restaurants like Sonobana to weather the pandemic during the coming months as Covid-19 cases climb and cold weather sets in. Call ahead at (203) 281‑4542 or (203) 281‑9922, or visit the restaurant’s website, to order pick-up or delivery. The restaurant is open Monday to Saturday from 4:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. and Sunday from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Muto got his start by selling fish; he and a few others would buy fish from a market, load the fish into a car, drive the car to a spot in Nagano and set up a small stand. “We would start to play music,” he said, “and the housewives would come outside and buy fish from us.” He did that for a year. He then moved to working in a sushi restaurant, where he learned to make sushi. He was there for a year and a half. He then moved to the United States. It was 1986, and he was 31 years old.
The Unification Church decided to open restaurants in every state, and sent Muto to Connecticut. “I was lucky to come here,” Muto said. He first spent six months at a restaurant in New York City, to learn more about how a sushi restaurant operates in the United States, then moved to Hamden. He had heard of Connecticut in Japan, as Reverend Moon had served 13 months in Danbury’s Federal Correction Institution, from 1984 to 1985, for tax evasion. “I was honored to come here,” he said with a laugh.
When he opened his restaurant, then called Hama, in 1986, the New Haven Register paid him a visit. As Muto recalled, the resulting article mentioned the novelty of opening a sushi restaurant in the area and wondered if it would make it. It also wrote that there was a chance that “sushi might be popular in the future,” Muto said. At the time, he said, his restaurant was the only sushi place in Hamden, and there were only two in New Haven. The Register article, however, turned out to be prescient; sushi is now a big part of the greater New Haven culinary landscape. When News Channel 8 paid him a visit (see above video) in 2001, it considered him a pioneer — and that was just before a dramatic increase Muto noted in the number of sushi places since 2002. Muto changed the name of the restaurant from Hama to Sonobana in 2003, but to the relief of longtime customers, very little changed apart from that. Sonobana has been voted as the best sushi in Hamden a few times and has made state-level lists and article mentions for best sushi as well.
The restaurant has also changed subtly with the times. “In the beginning, the menu skewed very much toward Japanese sushi,” Muto said. Over time, he adjusted to “local tastes,” adding special rolls. More recently, he noted that people’s tastes have migrated somewhat again, tilting away from rolls and toward sushi and sashimi. He has also added poke to the menu.
Takeout order ready to be boxed up.
Since the pandemic began, Sonobana’s business has shifted from a majority of customers dining in to almost everyone using Sonobana’s takeout and delivery options. Sonobana also used to serve lunch and now does not.
“I don’t feel alone because I have my employees, and we work together,” he said. But “I miss seeing my regular customers” in the restaurant.
Making sushi can seem simple, and on one level it is. To make a sushi roll, you take rice, spread a thin layer of it on a sheet of nori (seaweed), arrange the fish or other fillings in a line, then roll it up and cut it into pieces. The difference between good and great Japanese food is all in the subtle details — the taste and texture of the rice, perhaps owing to some delicate seasoning, the temperature of it all, and perhaps most important, the quality of the fish. Muto gets his fish mostly from markets in New York and Boston. The proof of Muto’s skill and experience in making sushi isn’t just in the ease and precision with which he makes his food, but also in its light and satisfying taste, and the way you feel when the meal is done.
Previous coverage of recommended take-orders to help keep local businesses survive the pandemic:
• Today’s Special: Haci’s Napoletana Pie
• Today’s Special: Fred & Patty’s Brie On Baguette
• Today’s Special: Nieda’s Moist Falafel
• Today’s Special: Qulen’s Vegan “Wings”
• Today’s Special: Aaron’s Peruvian Rice Bowl
• Today’s Special: Singh Bros.’ Chana Kulcha
• Today’s Special: Grandma’s Chicken Soup
• Today’s Special: Woody’s Steak & Shrimp
• Today’s Special: Shilmat’s Yemisir Sambusa
• Today’s Special: Arjun’s Vegetarian Manchurian
• Today’s Special: Mohammed’s Bhel Poori
• Today’s Special: Francesco’s Tortelli
Wonderful super fresh sushi. I've been a customer for 30 years, since they opened. Clean, cozy, respectful and In the style of grand sushi masters. their takeout quality is not sacrificed. Highly recommend.