A pop of cornflower blue framing a menu might catch your eye as you walk by this modest, brick building near the corner of Piermont Avenue and Ash Street — but don’t just pass on by. Follow the steps up and walk inside the space, where you’ll be elevated to an elegant and upscale culinary experience at Sabi Sushi.

Owner Doug Nguyen opened Sabi Sushi back in 2022. Locals know him as the well-loved former owner of Wasabi Restaurant in Nyack. But Doug’s journey to the Hudson River Valley began much further back, when in 1982, he escaped his war-torn country of Vietnam at the young age of 12. “I was in a refugee camp in Thailand, and had left my mom and siblings behind. She was a single mom and made the decision for me to go by myself.” Thanks to his Italian-American foster parents who lived in Stony Point, he was able to come to the United States and was welcomed into this new family which included four children of their own. “Freddie and Maria Nardone — I don’t call them foster parents, they’re like my own parents. They raised me.” They gave Doug an opportunity for a different kind of life.

As he was growing up, Doug divided his day between school and BOCES, which is where he learned how to cook. He also got his first job as a dishwasher at Maiko, a Japanese restaurant in New City, where he worked his way up from dishwasher to busboy, sushi helper to teaching helper. He eventually bought the restaurant in 2006. “I didn’t love it right away. It was a job, I’m an immigrant, I worked to survive, and I sent money back home to my family in Vietnam.” His drive to work hard and support his family would lead him to open more restaurants — Sakana in Nanuet, Wasabi in Nyack, and four restaurants in Manhattan, which mainly served lunch to the tourist crowd. When Covid hit in 2020, everything shut down. “I had to lock the doors and walk away,” never to open those restaurants in the city again. “It was a big change, but I don’t ask for a lot. What God gives, God takes. You have to enjoy what you have.”

It is that belief which prompted him to open Sabi Sushi. “I decided to come to Piermont because it’s like coming back home. I live in Palisades, and coming here is like stepping into my own dining room. This is my dream.” From the moment you enter the zen-like restaurant, the warm wood décor coupled with the leather banquette and cool, modern features all set the tone for an elegant and intimate dining experience. As you sit back in the seat and feel your heart rate slow, allow yourself to open to the clean, fresh flavors of each course as it’s carefully and thoughtfully prepared for you.

Start with the miso soup which will warm your belly and cleanse your palate. Then move onto the fried gyoza dumplings where one bite into the crispy edges brings you to the chewy interior for a multi-textural sensation. Follow it with the freshest sushi of your heart’s desire. While the fan favorite is Tuna Millenium — tempura-encrusted seared tuna with creamy wasabi sauce — Doug encourages patrons to try everything, and the best way to do that is to choose omakase, a chef-curated tasting menu.

Doug relies on a hardworking team of chefs and staff, all of whom have worked with him at his previous restaurants, some for as long as 15 years. The service is welcoming and attentive, and the chefs prepare each dish with precision and care. To Doug, “Food tastes like your personality. As you press [each sushi roll], it comes through. You put your personality and heart into the food.” At Sabi Sushi, that comes with a depth of life experience that is hard-earned and courageous.

“I think back when I was a refugee and cooked then to survive. I was a kid, but I needed to eat.” That Doug was able to take a skill that he had no choice but to learn and turn it into something that would enable him to thrive and achieve success in this country is no small feat. It’s the American dream.

Support the Piermont Library by bidding on this fine dining experience at Sabi Sushi:

• Omakase dinner for four — chef-curated tasting menu (custom-tailored to your liking)

• Bottle of sake

• Opportunity to meet and interact with chef and owner Doug Nguyen

• Gratuity not included

Valued at $400

Bidding starts at $100

Click HERE to bid- thank you for supporting our library!

Stop by the library throughout October to see our Art Show of the Month- Owen Gould: Elements of My Life.  All are welcome!

still lives , candles , flowers.

These elements are connected through my expressions. They are made from the energy of my soul . I’m inspired and influenced by Japanese calligraphy and use big brushstrokes and vibrant color in order to capture life and vitality from my imagination. Most of the images selected are monotypes with pastel added on top. Monotypes are unique prints made by painting plexiglass and transferring the image to paper by running it though a printing press. The spontaneity of the image achieved by this method is singular and the mistakes and chance happenings made by this process have been fascinating and surprising. I am also inspired by music in a non direct way. The rhythms of line, harmonies of color and vibrations of melody all have an impact on my working method and inspiration.

Join us on Sunday, October 20th at 3:00 pm for a special film screening of Secret Song with Hilan Warshaw.  Produced, directed and written by Hilan Warshaw, Secret Song tells the gripping true story behind a work of mysterious musical genius– weaving together dramatic reenactments, documentary, and vérité footage of legendary musicians Renée Fleming and the Emerson String Quartet. Click HERE to register.

Alban Berg’s Lyric Suite for string quartet has long been hailed as one of the masterpieces of 20th-century music. But for decades, few suspected that behind this powerful music lies an explosive secret. In 1925 Berg, a habitual womanizer, fell passionately in love with Hanna Fuchs-Robettin, a married woman living in Prague. Soon afterwards, Berg composed the Lyric Suite for string quartet, which he intended as an explicit musical portrayal of his love affair with Hanna. Berg explained the music’s secret meaning in a color-coded copy of the score that he annotated for Hanna, making clear that the main events of their romance are all vividly dramatized in the piece. But to the rest of the world—including his wife, Helene—Berg presented the piece as he wanted it to be seen: a purely abstract work of chamber music. Among the work’s secrets is that its last movement was originally conceived as a song about doomed love, set to a poem by Baudelaire.

SECRET SONG brings this tale to life as an innovative film narrative. At the heart of the film is a cinematic re-enactment of the love story hidden within the notes of the music, with the music itself as the soundtrack. The film also follows Renée Fleming and the Emerson String Quartet on a voyage of discovery from Paris and Dublin to leading American concert stages, as they perform the work and record their first-ever CD of the piece (including a reconstruction of the original vocal part to the last movement)– digging ever deeper into the piece’s dark world and the troubling secrets of Berg’s life.

How does knowing about an artist’s life affect us as audiences and performers? Should an artist’s personal flaws impact our opinion of their work? These questions, never more timely than now, are brought vividly to life in this tale of musical genius, inspiration, and seduction.

HILAN WARSHAW is an Emmy Award-winning director and writer. He has produced and directed internationally broadcast films featuring some of today’s most prominent musical artists, including Wagner’s Jews (WDR/ARTE, PBS-WNET, Israel’s Channel 8, Deutsche Welle and others); Secret Song with Renée Fleming and the Emerson String Quartet (SVT, Medici TV, PBS-AllArts, Allegro HD, EuroArts); Through the Darkness: Arnold Schoenberg and Richard Gerstl (ORF, SVT, YLE, and Medici TV); My Boléro with Nathalie Stutzmann (PBS-GPB, Medici TV; 2024 Southeast Emmy winner, Best Arts/Entertainment Long Form); In the Key of Bach (PBS-GPB); In the Station (PBS-KCET); Honorable Mr. Morgenthau (premiere screenings in May 2024); the forthcoming Mahler in New York (SVT and others), and The Faces of Carmen. In addition to these films of his, Hilan’s other writing and video editing credits include cultural documentaries and specials broadcast on WDR/ARTE, NHK, PBS, and other international networks. He is currently developing a feature screenplay.

Since autumn 2020, Hilan has worked as video director of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, directing acclaimed multi-camera concert captures released on-demand and broadcast on regional NBC and PBS. He writes and hosts Piece by Piece, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra’s video series exploring the stories behind musical masterworks. He is a Hermitage Artist Retreat Fellow, and has served as a juror for the Emmy Awards and International Emmy Awards. He has produced and edited numerous video and documentary projects for organizations including Carnegie Hall, New York City Opera, League of American Orchestras, Fund for the City of New York, American Friends of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Warner Music, and Warner Classics among many others.

His research essays on film and Wagnerian opera have been published in anthologies from Cambridge University Press, McFarland Press, and Königshausen & Neumann and in periodicals including The Wagner Journal, and he has taught lecture and film production courses at Barnard College and Western Carolina University. He has been a lecturer and panelist at venues including London’s Barbican Centre, Stockholm’s Royal Academy of Arts, Yale University, Columbia University, Boston University, NYU’s Deutsches Haus, Simon Wiesenthal Center, Minnesota Opera, Wagner Society of New York, and the Morgan Library & Museum, among many others. Hilan’s other commissioned and published writing includes verse librettos for musical works by Dalit Warshaw and Lera Auerbach, and for Saint-Saëns’ “Carnival of the Animals.”

He holds a B.F.A. and M.F.A. from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. An experienced violinist and conductor, he studied orchestral conducting at Mannes College of Music and the Aspen Music School. 

The Historical Society received a treasure trove of photographs from the Sullivan Family… A vast collection from long-time Piermonter, Howard Brawner. PHS Board member Dan Sherman will share a curated photo presentation. Register on our website events calendar today!

Are you looking for your next read? This month, our Adult Book Discussion Group is reading The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon. Our next meeting is on Wednesday from 3:00- 4:00 at the library and new members are always welcome!