First Look: Sushi 86 and Bites, Opening Late-August on E. Ninth Street Pier

Sushi 86 and Bites to open in new home by end of August. Credit: Douglas Trattner

Back in May, Rachel Hsu shuttered Sushi 86 and Bites at the 5th Street Arcades in preparation for a move to an attractive new home. Before the end of August, Hsu is expected to open the doors to that new location at the Harbor Verandas (1050 East 9th St.), the luxury apartment building located on the East Ninth Street Pier.

“This will be our seventh location since opening in 2000,” Hsu says. “We just bend and move and shift and change as we’ve needed to. So far that’s been good for us.”

The move essentially doubles the available dining options in and around the North Coast Harbor. Sushi 86 and Bites joins Nuevo Modern Mexican in serving a tourist-heavy clientele on the way to or from places like the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Great Lakes Science Center and Voinovich Bicentennial Park.

At breakfast and lunch, Bites will offer StoneFruit coffee, pastries, quiche, frittata, breakfast sandwiches, salads, Cubanos, grilled chicken sandwiches and ice cream.

Next door, Sushi 86 seats approximately 60 people spread across the dining room, lounge and sushi bar. Next year that number will climb when Hsu adds patio seating. Guests can look forward to a newly expanded menu of sushi, sashimi, rolls and poke bowls. For the first time, items off the Bites menu will be available to diners at Sushi 86 during lunch.

Hsu, thinking that she’d never return to sit-down dining, sold her liquor license during the pandemic. She will purchase a new one in the coming months.

Hsu is joined in the project by chefs Ashley Zanath and Dominique Colon.