UKIAH Japanese Smokehouse didn’t arrive quietly on the Riverwalk. It rolled in on a breeze of woodsmoke, sunlight and the confidence of a chef who knows exactly what he wants to feed a city. Stand outside the restaurant long enough and you feel it (the energy of Fort Lauderdale moving past on foot, bike or boat) and the way UKIAH folds into that rhythm so naturally it feels like it’s always belonged here.
Chef Michael Lewis, co-founder and executive chef, laughs a little when he talks about the move from Asheville to Fort Lauderdale, because for him it was less of a leap and more of a match. He shares that Asheville’s dining room is warm and cozy, perfect for winter nights, while Fort Lauderdale called for something brighter that could still shelter you from the heat. “The menu is same same but different,” he says. “Asheville leans into ramen and smoked dishes in winter. Here, the sunshine and access to the water influence it. It’s a little lighter, a little more seafood-driven, but the core is the same.” And that core, as he describes it, is where the magic happens.
UKIAH blurs the line between American barbecue and Japanese soul food, not as a gimmick but as a point of view. The dish that captures that better than anything is the brisket (pastrami-brined with shichimi, smoked slow and low and served with housemade kimchi, yuzu pickles, wasabi and a Kyoto-Carolina barbecue sauce). He grins as he adds, “It has you remembering your last trip to Texas while booking your next trip to Japan.” The brisket arrives with Japanese milk bread, soft and warm enough that you instinctively start tearing it apart, stacking pieces of meat, kimchi, pickles and sauce into combinations that change with every bite. “I wanted a dish that tested my barbecue limits and delivered the umami complexity of my favorite Japanese flavors,” he says. “And the milk bread keeps it interesting for me all night.”
For a chef with more than 30 years in kitchens, you might expect him to keep his secret weapon ingredient close to the chest. Instead, he shrugs and says, “Salt.” Not fancy salt. Not a secret blend. Just the discipline of knowing how to use it. It’s the kind of unpretentious answer that reveals everything about his cooking philosophy. He also admits that live fire still surprises him. Not the flavor…the work. The act of cleaning the smoker, coaxing the fire to life, knowing exactly when to add wood and wondering whether a decision now will affect the rest of the night. “It’s alive,” he says, “so you’re always thinking about it.”
Despite all the thought that goes into the food, what brought him to Fort Lauderdale was something much simpler: the neighborhood. “For as big and diverse as it is, the city still has a small- or medium-town vibe,” he says. He describes the regulars who walk by every morning, the joggers, the dog-walkers, the way people wave through the windows. “It feels like home, and like we’ve always been here.” That sense of belonging carries through the menu, which he calls Japanese soul food and American barbecue, but it translates as something even more grounded on the plate.
Dishes like smoked pastrami short rib, crispy baby back ribs, wagyu skewers and richly layered pork belly tonkotsu deliver the comfort and depth he’s known for, while lighter dishes (crisp hamachi, fresh oysters, crispy rice, grilled Tokyo street corn) match the Riverwalk’s coastal ease. Even the name UKIAH carries that spirit of reinterpretation: it’s Haiku spelled backwards. “It felt like what I was doing,” he says. “Taking something with structure (barbecue, sashimi, ramen) and flipping it. Still structured, still beautiful, just different.”
The cocktail program follows the same creative loop, with the bar and kitchen teams constantly challenging each other, sharing ingredients, swapping sauces and folding house components into drinks. He lights up talking about a fall cocktail created to raise money for FIU culinary scholarships, made with yuzu marmalade from the burrata dish and pears from the iceberg wedge.
Brunch has become a surprise star in Fort Lauderdale, even if he jokes it isn’t the easiest service for chefs. But here, on the river, with the terrace full, a DJ spinning throwbacks and soft-shell crab Benedicts flowing from the kitchen, it’s become one of the city’s favorite weekend rituals.
And while he’s open to the idea of more UKIAH locations someday, he makes it clear that Fort Lauderdale is the center of the story right now. The fire burns here. The neighborhood is here. The energy is here. And UKIAH, smoky and sunlit and entirely itself, feels right at home.
The Dish: Grilled Bok Choy, Carrot-Ginger Dressing and Toasted Sesame
*Please note this dressing needs to marinate overnight in the fridge, so make it the day before.
Ingredients:
for dressing
- 1 ¾ cups white onion, roughly chop
- ¼ cup carrots, roughly chop
- 3 tbsp celery, roughly chop
- ¾ of an Asian Pear (or regular) peel, core and finely grate
- 1 ½ tsp ginger, peel and finely grate
- 6 tbsp rice vinegar
- 1 tbsp sugar
- ¾ cup soy sauce
- ¼ cup grapeseed oil or any neutral oil
- 4 tsp sesame oil
for bok choy
- 4 whole bok choy
- Soy sauce (roughly 1 tsp brushed per bok choy)
- Kosher salt to sprinkle on bok choy
- Grapeseed oil or any neutral oil for brushing
for toasted sesame
- ½ tsp of toasted sesame seeds
- 1 lemon, cut in half and charred on the grill or burner if possible
Method:
1. Add white onion, carrots and celery to a food processor to puree. Then, mix with the Asian pear and ginger, and set aside.
2. Meanwhile combine the rice vinegar and white sugar, whisk to dissolve sugar.
3. In a medium-sized bowl, add the soy sauce, grapeseed oil and sesame oil, stir and then combine your pureed vegetable and sugared vinegar. Mix to combine all ingredients and leave overnight.
4. Turn on your grill to get up to temperature. In a large pot, bring 8 cups of water to boil with 4 tbsp of kosher salt. Using tongs, blanch each bok choy for 15 seconds in the boiling water, then place in an ice bath to cool rapidly.
5. Once cooled, place on a kitchen towel to absorb moisture. Brush the bok choy with neutral oil and a sprinkle of salt, cook the bok choy to your desired tenderness, getting a little char if possible, approximately 2 minutes per side, then brush with the tamari soy and cook each side an additional 1 minute.
6. Place on a serving dish, and spoon over 3-4 tbsps of dressing, sprinkle the sesame seeds over the top and garnish with the charred lemon wedge. Squeeze before enjoying.
