South Florida omakase chain OMAKAI is executing its most aggressive build-out cycle to date, signing leases for two Chicago locations, a first Orlando outpost, and additional Miami-area units — a multi-site expansion that puts several new commercial kitchen fit-outs on the construction calendar before year-end 2026.
Two Chicago Formats
The Chicago push deploys two purpose-built concepts with distinct back-of-house footprints. The flagship OMAKAI sushi location at 951 W Fulton Market will seat 66 guests on the main floor and include a basement bar — a two-level build-out that demands dedicated prep, refrigeration, and ventilation infrastructure across both floors. The second unit, an OMAKAI hand roll bar at 507 N Wells Street in River North, is a leaner 30-seat counter format optimized for high-throughput hand roll production, where warm rice holding and nori-crisping consistency are central to the brand's quality promise. Both locations are slated to open before the end of 2026 and will offer lunch, happy hour, and dinner service.
For equipment specifiers and consultants, the contrast between the two formats is instructive. The Fulton Market flagship mirrors the brand's existing South Florida sushi bar layouts — sushi cases, nigiri prep lines, and plated coursing — while the River North hand roll bar parallels the fast-casual counter model increasingly common in urban Japanese concepts, where rice cooker banks, nori warmers, and tight mise-en-place stations take priority over plated-service equipment. Operators and consultants specifying multi-unit Japanese concepts will recognize these as effectively two separate kitchen design briefs, even within one brand's expansion.
Florida Footprint Grows
Beyond Chicago, OMAKAI is simultaneously adding an Orlando location — its first entry into Central Florida — and two more South Florida units in Brickell: one full sushi bar and one hand roll bar. Founded in Wynwood in 2019, the brand has already built out locations in Coconut Grove, Doral, Aventura, and Downtown Miami, giving its kitchen design and equipment procurement teams a well-worn playbook to replicate. Scaling a sushi concept across multiple markets puts recurring demand on cold-chain and prep-and-storage decisions: sushi-grade fish receiving, walk-in temperature zoning, and rice holding at precise temperatures are non-negotiable spec points for every new unit.
The brand's 'Homeakase' takeout and delivery boxes, available via UberEats, add a packaged-foods cold-chain dimension to each location's back-of-house, requiring dedicated assembly and cold-holding capacity separate from the dine-in prep line.
What the Rollout Signals
OMOKAI's simultaneous multi-market push reflects a broader pattern in fast-casual Japanese dining: concepts that refine their kitchen model in a home market and then replicate it aggressively once unit economics are proven. For equipment dealers and manufacturer reps active in the Chicago and Florida markets, a brand opening four or more units in a compressed window represents a meaningful equipment fleet opportunity — from refrigerated sushi cases and rice cookers to ventilation and warewashing packages.
Diego Quijada, founder and CEO of OMAKAI, framed the Chicago entry as a milestone driven by community demand, noting the brand's intent to deliver "warm rice, crispy nori and kind service every single time" in the new market. Executing that consistency across a two-city, multi-format footprint will depend heavily on standardized cooking-equipment specs and cold-side procurement — the behind-the-scenes infrastructure that makes accessible omakase repeatable at scale.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
