$100 Gift Card to Cherry Hills Sushi

Cherry Hills Village will gets a rare new restaurant with the opening of Cherry Hills Sushi Co. in a shopping center at the corner of Hampden Avenue and South Lafayette Street. The minimalist eatery is the project of chef Bradford Kim and his wife, Olivia Maeng; they're focusing on a small menu of temaki — sushi hand rolls — supplemented with creatively presented sashimi.

Typical hand rolls are conical in shape but Kim says he prefers a cylindrical roll because it keeps the nori wrapper from getting soggy. This is important because of the temperature and texture contrasts that make temaki different from standard rolls found in almost every other sushi restaurant in Denver. High-grade nori (yes, the seaweed wrappers come in differing levels of quality) holds warm rice and cool fish in rolls made to order and meant to be eaten immediately, so that the wrapper maintains its crunch. Customer orders are paced so that the next temaki is made only after the first is finished.

Five standard (cucumber, salmon, tuna, spicy tuna and blue crab) and three premium (lobster, uni and toro) temaki make up the opening hand-roll list at $4 and $7.50, respectively. Although the rolls can be ordered individually, the better deal is to order three for $10 or five for $18 (which includes the choice of one premium roll). Any additional sashimi orders (three pieces for $7 or six for $13) are alternated so that flavors and textures follow a palate-pleasing order, Kim notes. And because seafood is seasonal, the menu options will vary depending on what's freshest.