Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Asian restaurant, nightclub opens
Shato offers sushi, tapas in Himmarshee at former #00 Saloon site
Country is out and late-night sushi is in at the mammoth Himmarshee Village building that sprouted from a parking lot last year.
Shato Asian Tapas and Sushi Lounge opened quietly last month at 307 SW Second St., replacing the short-lived #00 Saloon. The big sign hanging atop the restaurant now says #00 Shato.
The Asian-themed restaurant and nightclub features six bars, a sushi bar and VIP areas, and it will soon open an exclusive omakase room where chef Ped Phommavong will create custom dining experiences for small groups by reservation only.
Shato will operate as a full-service restaurant offering lunch and dinner nightly, then convert to a nightclub from 11 p.m.-4 a.m. Thursday-Saturday, with the kitchen open until 3 a.m., says restaurant partner Brent Pollack. Daily happy hours with food and drink specials are planned. The two-story structure can hold up to 550 people. The ground-floor dining area is set up for around 100 patrons, including 20 seats at the sushi bar.
Pollack and business partner Harley Chesal say the nightclub will feature DJs and other musical acts, including rappers and bands. The decor features a wall with 2,500 Chinese food takeout containers, Japanese lanterns, upsidedown Japanese umbrellas, and a lounging, horizontally sprawled 15-foot Buddha atop the sushi bar, a piece made by the Broward Design Center.
On the way: A 60-foot Chinese dragon that will descend from the ceiling on winches.
“It’s going to look pretty cool,” says Chesal, 27, a Fort Lauderdale native.
“Like the dragons you see at Chinese New Year, only with no people in it,” says Pollack, 27, who grew up in Plantation and graduated from South Plantation High.
Pollack and Chesal run a design
firm, Elite Design Innovations, that has worked extensively with nightclubs and restaurants. They partnered with Phommavong, known as Chef Ped, and site owner Eric Majid to launch Shato.
Majid, whose family operated parking lots at the site until he built #00 Saloon last year, remains involved. He says the country concept with line dancing and American food at #00 Saloon didn’t take off, but that a club with sushi should be a better fit for the area.
Chef Ped, born in Thailand, worked at many restaurants in Bangkok and says he competed frequently on the Thai version of “Iron Chef ” before he moved to South Florida earlier this decade. A video loop of his “Iron Chef Thailand” appearances played at Shato earlier this week. He has worked at Sushi Song and Sugar, the rooftop restaurant at the East, Miami hotel at Brickell City Centre.
The menu features a panAsian mix of Japanese, Thai, Chinese, Vietnamese and Korean cuisine, including sushi, soups, salads, dumplings, rice and noodle dishes. Prices range from $4 to $20.