CHARLESTON — Tae Woo Lee and Peter Marcus have collectively cooked in nearly a dozen countries, from Denmark to Australia.
The global flavors they experienced will be wrapped in rice and nori at Kyn, their forthcoming restaurant dedicated to Japanese-style hand rolls. In addition to fish and rice tucked neatly inside nori like a taco, the forthcoming 61 Cannon St. establishment will serve crudos, small plates and large-format shareables, as well as cocktails, beer and wine.
Kyn falls somewhere between a traditional omakase and casual sushi spot, Lee and Marcus said. Specializing in hand rolls will enable the owners to offer accessibly priced options while still sourcing the highest quality of fish, they said.
The two chefs bring impressive resumes to Charleston. Marcus has worked in multiple Michelin star kitchens, including Kadeau in Copenhagen, Denmark. Recently, he helped open a market and eatery on a regenerative farm in California.
Lee, who once hosted supper clubs in his University of Southern California college apartment, has opened restaurants in Los Angeles, New York City and, most recently, the Miami area. He’s perhaps best known for Dirty Taco, which gained acclaim for its monthly 11-course taco tasting menu in the underground dining concourse of Grand Central Terminal.
It was around the time of its opening that the two chefs met at the gym. When Marcus joined Lee to help operate the Tacomakase series, they realized they had chemistry in the kitchen.
Three years after they went their separate ways to launch concepts in California and Miami, they reunited and began to discuss debuting a new restaurant together.
After visiting Charleston, they were struck by the city’s vibrant dining culture and decided it would be the ideal location for Kyn. They both moved to town last year and began hosting pop-ups while renovations at 61 Cannon St., once home to a YMCA established in 1866, were completed.
Dining and Cooking