Sushi at Forty-five Degrees

If Tuesday night was any indication, the folks at this new Mass Ave restaurant/lounge may have underestimated this growing neighborhood's desire for a sushi bar. Forty-five Degrees, located at the corner of College and Mass Ave and brought to you by the folks who opened Blu Martini on the northside opened last weekend. Even staff seemed surprised there were customers on a Tuesday night following their weekend opening.

By the light of day, the steel and white room with bare cement floor looks more like a bar (or a casual diner) and one hopes there are sun shades on order for the floor-to-ceiling glass windows.
Even with the little kinks, as soon as they start bringing plates of fresh nigiri and maki for feasting, moods improve. (I had fresh white tuna, eel, scallop, and a tempura roll. They'd just 86'd the soft shell crab when I arrived and the Godzilla roll was popular.)

The regular menu features basic wraps, sandwiches and salads sure to prove popular with the lunch and casual dinner crowd. (It's already a hit with residents of the building, at least one upstairs neighbor whose last name starts with "A" was there.) Servers are all still new and untrained, and even with the restaurant only a third full, the sushi bar was slammed with long waits. Let's hope the sushi stays popular enough that they can adjust staff.

One caveat: Sometimes a bar is still just a bar. When I asked about wines, the server said they had two -- "one white, one red." The martini list looked tempting, but was missing prices. When I asked, the server was able to tell me, but they range from $7.50 to $10.00. At least they had some Japanese beers. Servers said to expect more specials in the next few weeks -- maybe even the half price sushi special they used to have at Blu Martini.