Credit: Eddie Sanchez, Hungry in LA

Bigger, Better, Smarter: How Sushi Nozawa Group Scales Without Sacrificing Quality

15 Minute read

27 Feb 2025

Journalist

The teams behind SUGARFISH, HiHo, UOVO, and Matū have a different approach to growth—one that actually makes their food better.

Most restaurant groups expand with a clear trade-off: as the number of locations increases, quality tends to decline. Growth requires standardization, efficiency, and often, cost-cutting, all of which make it difficult to maintain the high standards of a small, independent kitchen.

But Jerry Greenberg and his partners at Sushi Nozawa Group, HiHo Cheeseburger, UOVO, and Matū reject that premise entirely. Instead of accepting that scale leads to a dip in quality, they have built their businesses around the radical belief that expansion should make the food better.

“Most businesses, as they scale, quality decreases. That’s just a natural outcome,” Greenberg explains. “We don’t look at growth as all that important. But if we can make our food better by having a few more restaurants, then that’s key.”

It’s an ambitious mission, but across their four distinct restaurant groups, it’s one that has proven to work.

One Philosophy, Four Separate Businesses

Unlike traditional restaurant groups, these four businesses do not operate as a single entity. Each concept—Sushi Nozawa Group, HiHo Cheeseburger, UOVO, and Matū—has its own leadership, operations, and culinary focus. What unites them is their shared commitment to quality, their obsessive approach to sourcing, and their belief that every bite should be as good as—or better than—the last.

Uovo's Cacio e Pepe. Credit: Eddie Sanchez, Hungry in LA

HiHo Cheeseburger. Credit: Eddie Sanchez, Hungry in LA

SUGARFISH, Nozawa Bar, and KazuNori: Preserving the Nozawa Legacy

The journey started with sushi. Kazunori Nozawa, a revered Los Angeles sushi chef known for his uncompromising approach to traditional Edomae-style sushi, built a cult following at Sushi Nozawa, which opened in 1987 in Studio City. For 25 years, it was one of L.A.’s most respected sushi restaurants before closing in 2012.

In 2007, Nozawa partnered with Jerry Greenberg, Tom Nozawa, Lele Massimini, Cameron Broumand, and Clement Mok to form Sushi Nozawa Group. Their goal? To make Nozawa’s sushi more accessible while remaining 100% committed to quality.

The first SUGARFISH opened in Marina del Rey in 2008, reimagining the omakase experience for a broader audience while staying true to Nozawa’s exacting standards. From there, the expansion continued:

Nozawa Bar launched in 2013, offering an intimate, high-end omakase experience.
KazuNori, the first hand-roll bar of its kind, opened in 2014, focusing on freshly made, warm hand rolls.

But the team didn’t just replicate what Nozawa had built. They refined it. By increasing their scale, they were able to source better fish, improve supply chains, and even influence how seafood is handled before it reaches their kitchens.

“If we can buy more tuna, and therefore buy it directly and actually influence how the tuna is caught, processed, and gets to us—wait a second, we could actually increase the quality of tuna,” Greenberg says. “That’s not just a hypothetical. That’s something we’ve done.”

Nozawa Bar. Credit: Eddie Sanchez, Hungry in LA

KazuNori. Credit: Eva Kosmas

“Most businesses, as they scale, quality decreases. That’s just a natural outcome,” Greenberg explains. “We don’t look at growth as all that important. But if we can make our food better by having a few more restaurants, then that’s key.”

HiHo Cheeseburger: A Burger That’s Better for You and the Planet

At HiHo Cheeseburger, the challenge was different. The goal wasn’t just to make an outstanding burger, but to redefine what a fast-casual burger could be.

HiHo first opened in Ojai in 2015 before relocating to Santa Monica in 2017. What set it apart was its commitment to using only 100% grass-fed Wagyu beef from First Light Farms in New Zealand—a nutrient-dense, Omega-3-rich alternative that’s also environmentally sustainable.

Greenberg admits, “There can’t be 50 HiHos. There won’t be 50 HiHos. We’ve got four right now, maybe a couple more coming, and we’re already pressing up against some limits.”

That’s because HiHo’s sourcing constraints aren’t dictated by demand, but by supply. First Light’s ethically raised Wagyu cattle are limited in number, and unlike most restaurant groups, Greenberg’s team refuses to compromise on quality to expand faster.

“If we wanted to open 20 locations tomorrow, we could. But we’d have to change the beef. And that’s never going to happen.”

UOVO: A Pasta Revolution, Made in Italy

If sushi and burgers weren’t enough, Greenberg and Lele Massimini—who grew up in Rome—set their sights on perfecting fresh pasta. But instead of making it in Los Angeles, they made a bold decision to do something that had never been done before, or since:

They decided to make their fresh pasta in Italy and ship it to America.

UOVO opened in 2017, bringing handmade pasta dishes to L.A. with a level of authenticity rarely seen outside Italy. “We tried making it here,” Greenberg says. “But the eggs, the flour, the knowhow—everything is different. If we wanted the pasta to taste like it does in Italy, we had to make it in Italy.”

UOVO’s team sources ingredients from Italy, hand-rolls the pasta in their Bologna kitchen, and ships it fresh—never frozen—to Los Angeles each day.

That obsessive commitment to authenticity and consistency has made UOVO a standout in L.A.’s competitive pasta scene, proving once again that scale doesn’t have to come at the expense of quality.

Uovo Lasagna. Credit: Eddie Sanchez, Hungry in LA

Uovo Amatriciana. Credit: Eddie Sanchez, Hungry in LA

Matū: The Steak Restaurant That Redefines Grass-Fed Beef

Matū opened in 2021, but Greenberg’s journey to perfecting steak started much earlier.

In 2000, on a trip to France, Greenberg had a steak so revelatory it completely reset his understanding of what beef could be. Determined to recreate that experience, he spent years researching beef, experimenting with different cooking methods, and—most importantly—finding the right source. That search led him to First Light Farms, which was raising 100% grass-fed Wagyu cattle on regenerative pastures in New Zealand.

“I thought dry-aged, grain-fed beef was the gold standard,” Greenberg admits. “But once I tasted First Light’s beef, I realized I had been wrong.”

Unlike conventional beef, First Light’s Wagyu doesn’t need to be dry-aged. It develops deep, complex flavors naturally due to the cattle’s diet and genetics. At Matū, every part of the animal is used—from ribeye to bone broth to tartare—ensuring a holistic, sustainable approach to steak.

And just like at HiHo, there’s a limit to how many Matūs can exist.

“We need about three years of lead time before we can open another Matū,” Greenberg says. “Because we don’t just need more beef—we need the right beef.”

In 2025, Matū will expand with Matū Kai, an omakase-style steak experience that further pushes the boundaries of what a steak restaurant can be.

The Future: Growth Without Compromise and Food That Makes You Feel Good

Despite their success, Greenberg and his partners have no interest in rapid expansion. But they’re keenly focused on food that leaves their customers feeling better after eating in their restaurants.

“We focus on foods that are clean and make you feel good. We’re really happy when we hear people say, ‘I went to Matū and I don't feel like I just killed myself.’” Greenberg went on to explain that to create a sustainable business, it’s completely intuitive to think that people will always come back if they don’t feel awful after eating. “The feeling good part of eating in our restaurants is something that has emerged more since the beginning. But that's something that really has elevated in our thinking, in making sure that we're giving people food that makes them feel good. And we think that has a lot to do with staying away from ultra processed foods and focusing on whole foods.”

What makes these restaurants stand apart isn’t just the quality of their food—it’s the philosophy that drives them. In an industry where scaling up often means watering down, they’ve managed to do the impossible:

Prove that bigger can, in fact, mean better.

27 Feb 2025

1 Michelin Star Restaurants