Chotto Matte Restaurant, Miami FL, USA

In Miami—where light, tropical greenery and urban energy meet—Chotto Matte stages an immersive restaurant interior built around charred wood. Walls and ceilings are clad in Suyaki by Nakamoto Forestry: deeply charred cedar using the Japanese Shou Sugi Ban / Yakisugi technique. The black, tactile surface gathers light, highlights the grain and grounds the room—an elegant counterpoint to vivid murals, the lively bar and open sushi stations.

Architecture choreographs views and movement: folded, sloping ceiling planes; beams of light sliding across the Shou Sugi Ban texture; seamless transitions between dining, bar and live-cooking zones. Beneath a large skylight, palms rise from a sculpted rock centerpiece—forming a tropical atrium in striking tension with the dark Suyaki wood. Warm timber furnishings and bold color accents create layers between intimacy and spectacle.

Beyond atmosphere, Yakisugi delivers performance for hospitality: natural durability, robust surfaces, low maintenance and comfortable acoustics—ideal for high-traffic restaurant design. Chotto Matte Miami becomes both culinary stage and architectural statement, translating the city’s energy into light, shadow and the timeless materiality of charred cedar.