Tim and Nancy Cushman's Leather District omakase counter has been one of America's most acclaimed Japanese restaurants since 2007 — a James Beard winner where each piece of nigiri arrives as a composed bite, often with unexpected accents (foie gras, banyuls reduction, house-smoked trout). Expensive in a way that polarizes, transcendent when it lands. For diners who want sushi treated as a tasting-menu art form rather than tradition.