Sushi Hana’s big move

Eliza Carey

(Missoula Current) Sushi Hana never planned to close for good. But with rising rent at its iconic Higgins and Pine location and a 10-year lease coming to an end, owner Yuriko Hagen had to make a choice.

Originally, Hagen thought she would run the restaurant for a decade and then step away. “I didn’t want to stop making sushi,” she said. “So I began looking for another location.”

A longtime fan of Scotty’s Table, her favorite restaurant in Missoula, Hagen knew that owner Scott Gill was planning to retire. The space had been on the market before she reached out to Gill to share Sushi Hana’s situation.

“It happened very organically,” Hagen said.

Gill had been looking for someone to take over the space and the timing felt right. Scotty’s Table held its last full service in December.

“We talked back and forth for a while, and it just seemed like the perfect transfer,” Gill said. “We wanted to pass on our passion for this industry to someone local.” He added, “They’ve totally transformed the space. It’s exciting to see a new energy in there.”

Sushi Hana now owns its new home in the Wilma building rather than renting. Hagen hopes that this change will bring more financial stability and benefits to her loyal team, some of whom have been with the restaurant for over a decade.

Zach Sergeant, a 32-year-old Missoula native, just hit his 10-year mark of working at Sushi Hana in June and has been the kitchen manager for 6 years. “It was definitely time for a change for us,” he said. Sergeant is excited to return, serve upgraded menu items and lean into a more fine-dining experience.

The new location will feature an expanded menu and a new executive chef with more than 25 years of industry experience. Hagen said they plan to bring more variety and introduce Missoula diners to even more authentic Japanese flavors.

The move has taken longer than Hagen anticipated. “It’s been so long, and so hard not making sushi,” she said.

Sushi Hana plans to reopen by the end of July. For the grand opening, the new executive chef will perform a traditional Japanese bluefin tuna breakdown — a dramatic, precise process that has never before been done publicly in Missoula.

“I just want to get people excited about Japanese food,” Hagen said. “That’s my role here in Missoula.”