by TM Petaccia

Yama Asian Fusion’s high-end sushi along with some of Baku’s dishes will be coming to LoSo this fall. TM Petaccia/UP

Charlotte restauranteur Birdie Yang has closed leases on two properties with plans to open by the end of the year.

Yang’s Yama Asian Fusion will expand to LoSo on the corner of Clanton Road and Dewitt Lane – next to Weathered Souls Brewing Co., Red Clay Ciderworks, State of Confusion, and the upcoming new location of The Everyday Market.

“It’s going to be a very hot culinary corner over there,” Yang says.

The 4000 square-foot facility will be similar to Yama’s Waverly and South Park locations according to Yang. “We’ll be bringing our high-quality sushi and other dishes from Yama, as well as some dishes from Baku,” he says. Baku is Yang’s high-end Japanese concept located in Charlotte’s South Park neighborhood.

Yama Asian Fusion / LoSo is expected to open sometime this fall.

Yang will also be introducing a brand new concept at 2907 Selwyn Avenue, across from The Jimmy. The yet-unnamed restaurant will be a tasting menu concept featuring a combination of French and Japanese dishes with a dedicated focus on fine wines. “It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a long time,” he says.

The restaurant will be smaller than his other concepts with approximately 30 seats, including a chef’s table for ten with a dining area seating approximately 20 more. The exact configuration is pending the final design. “It’s a dinner-only place in a very intimate setting,” Yang says. “We’ve been doing a lot of market research, we’ve been doing a lot of tasting dinners, to test the concept.”

Yang did consider a purely Japanese omakase concept, but opted for the new approach. “I always wanted to build that (omakase) restaurant, but Robin (Robin Anthony, chef-owner of Prime Fish and Omakase by Prime Fish, who worked for Yang previously) did that, Since one of my students had already done it, I don’t need to do it anymore. We don’t have to kill each other. We can complement each other,” he says.

“So I’m doing something completely off-beat.”