A first-of-its-kind sushi bar dedicated to serving lab-grown salmon is gearing up to open in S.F.’s Dogpatch neighborhood. A first-of-its-kind s

S.F. is getting the world's first 'cultured sushi' tasting room, where fish is grown in a lab

submited by
Style Pass
2021-06-30 17:30:04

A first-of-its-kind sushi bar dedicated to serving lab-grown salmon is gearing up to open in S.F.’s Dogpatch neighborhood.

A first-of-its-kind sushi bar serving cultured salmon is gearing up to open in Dogpatch this fall — but it will be a while before paying customers can sample any of the fish.

The project is the brainchild of the S.F startup Wildtype, which has been working since 2016 to produce cultured salmon, or salmon grown in a lab. Like other alternative meat companies, Wildtype hopes it can eventually produce enough fish to be sold at grocery stores and to be served in dishes at Bay Area restaurants.

Founders Aryé Elfenbein and Justin Kolbeck, who announced plans for the new Dogpatch tasting room in April and more recently slated a tentative debut this September, said the sushi bar isn’t a restaurant. Instead, it’s more like an interactive museum where visitors get a window into how the fish is made, literally. The tasting room will have a glass barrier allowing diners to peer into the production facility where the salmon is grown in stainless steel tanks, similar to what visitors might find in a brewery.

“People are often so removed from the process of meat and seafood production,” said Elfenbein, a molecular biologist by training, who relied on his background in science and medicine to create Wildtype along with Kolbeck. “We wanted to remove that barrier, to have customers feel connected to what they’re eating.”

Leave a Comment