Two chefs who've cooked in a dozen countries between them picked Charleston for their comeback. That's the story at 61 Cannon Street.
Kyn opens before the end of August. Japanese-style hand rolls — fish and rice tucked into nori like a taco — plus crudos, small plates, large-format shareables, and a cocktail program the owners treat like the food.
Why it matters: Charleston has omakase. Charleston has grocery-store sushi. What it hasn't had is the space in between — top-tier fish at a price you can justify on a Tuesday. That's the whole bet.
Tae Woo Lee and Peter Marcus met at a gym in New York. Marcus had come up through multiple Michelin-star kitchens, including Kadeau in Copenhagen. Lee was running Dirty Taco, which got its acclaim from a monthly 11-course taco tasting menu in the dining concourse under Grand Central Terminal. He started out hosting supper clubs from his college apartment at USC.
Marcus joined the Tacomakase series. The chemistry was obvious. Then they split — California for one, Miami for the other — and spent three years apart before deciding to build something together.
They came to Charleston, saw the dining scene, and moved here last year. They've been running pop-ups ever since while renovations dragged on at 61 Cannon, a brick building that opened as a YMCA in 1866.
Here's what you walk into: a marble standing bar first, then two chef-facing bars where you watch the rolls get made. A cushioned banquette anchors the front. About 40 seats total. Sidewalk seating and a rooftop cocktail lounge come later.
The food is seasonal and changes constantly, with fish from top purveyors in Japan. A hamachi hand roll with pickled daikon. A tuna tasting across lean, fatty, and dry-aged. A tuna “cannoli” in a wonton shell. French toast capped with uni.
“We want punchy flavors,” Marcus said in the Post & Courier.
The bar gets the same treatment — coconut matcha margarita, frozen lychee martini. “We're just treating (each drink) like a dish,” Lee said.
Dimly lit, '90s hip-hop and ABBA on the speakers, lunch and dinner daily. Snacks and a drink, or a full sit-down. Both work.
Follow @kyn.chs for the opening date.
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