Ogawa has hosted two tuna cutting omakases, in May 2024 and April 2025. “We like to do them in the spring, when tuna is fattier, though we’re looking to do one quarterly,” said Vy To, Ogawa’s owner. Ticket sales—VIP seats at the omakase counter for $220 and slightly cheaper standing spots for $180—create buzz for the restaurant ahead of the slower summer season. The events require no insignificant amount of logistical planning. “It’s a very heavy fish and we need more help,” said Wills. “We need help lifting the fish, getting the food to guests who are seated, standing, and coming into Almanac upstairs for tuna specials.” It also demands inventory planning; there will be a lot of tuna on the menu in the days after the event.
On the day of the event, “we’ll ask chef Minoru Ogawa to come in from Washington, D.C.,” said To. “We’ll have to plan a month in advance to make sure we have room in the walk-in, talk to the delivery driver to make sure it’s the last stop during the day. We’ll be there to help him bring it down from the truck. The warehouse has heavy lifting machines, but here we need four people to pull it into the restaurant.”
Wholesale, the 250- to 300-pound fish still costs $37 to $90 per pound and must be sourced from specific places depending on the season. At Ogawa, tuna comes from Mexico, Spain, Japan, Boston, and North Carolina. It’s a massive financial undertaking.
Thanks to such spectacles, I know now what a dissected bluefin spinal column looks like, and that the gelatinous marrow contained within can be pickled and served like a wiggling, oceanic, Jell-O pudding in the hollow of one chunk of spine, still attached to a dramatically large, sharp, and curvaceous rib.
“The tuna cutting experience is the best combination of traditional edomae-style omakase and the fun part of what we always imagine an Ogawa omakase experience to be,” said To. The first 30 minutes are quiet, as spectators look on in awe. “They watch every single knife movement. It’s so quiet and zen. It’s like everyone is in a theater watching a show.” Once the chef declares the cutting is over, it bursts into a giant party. Everyone is drinking, talking, laughing, having fun. “It’s truly the best of both worlds that we’re trying to achieve every single day.”