New Fish in Town: Nama Sushi Bar Opens at Hill Center

Nama Sushi Bar, the newest addition to Hill Center Brentwood’s restaurant roster, opened to the public Wednesday night, serving a wide variety of “fresh Asian fusion” cuisine.

Nama got its start in Knoxville, where there are currently two locations of the restaurant. In 2014, a Nama opened up in Nashville on Elliston Place. When that restaurant proved to be a success, Director of Operations Anthony Fowler said he began looking for other areas near the city where Nama could move.

“We were looking to expand the concept and we felt that Brentwood was a great location for us,” Fowler said.

There are multiple reasons Fowler felt this way. For one, he said Brentwood was a town that had a clear interest in cuisine.

Location also had a lot to do with it. Fowler sensed a demand for a Nama outside the city.

“Within six months, we were getting, ‘You guys should come to Franklin, Brentwood or somewhere south of Nashville,’” he said.

Fowler said Brentwood is an ideal location for people who want to go to a nice sushi restaurant, but don’t want to have to drive all the way into Nashville.

When he heard about the Hill Center, and the fact that restaurants like Uncle Julio’s, Holler & Dash and Del Frisco’s Grille were set to move there, Fowler saw the perfect opportunity.

On the subject of the food at Nama, it’s more diverse than diners might expect. People who are wary of eating raw fish can still find lots of options on the menu. There is “plenty for the non-sushi lover and the sushi lover,” as Fowler put it.

“We focus on sushi obviously but we also have a wide variety of menu items, all of which are creative and chef-driven.”

One thing that diners perusing the menu might not thinking about is the amount of skill and care that goes into running a good sushi restaurant.

“Because it’s such a specialized cuisine, there’s a lot of training required,” Fowler said. “It takes a lot of time and energy to take someone to the level they need to be able to execute our menu.

While it opened for dinner Wednesday night, it will open Thursday for lunch and dinner, seven days a week.

Nama offers a variety of specials, including half price on select sushi items on Mondays and Thursdays from 4 p.m. until closing. Extended happy hours are on the weekends, from 11 to 6:30 p.m. on Saturdays and all day on Sundays.

A menu for the Brentwood location can be found here.