A familiar Denver chef is back with an upscale omakase restaurant

Chef Duy Pham almost left the restaurant industry altogether when he departed from his executive chef role at For[a]ged in the Dairy Block three months ago.

“I’m kind of at that age where I need to do this because I love to do this. or I need to do less of it before I no longer like the industry, which was where I was headed,” he said.

Luckily, the Vietnamese chef, who rose to local restaurant industry fame in his 20s while working for now-shuttered restaurants like The Normandy and Tante Louise, decided to stick around. Pham has now partnered with restaurateurs Steve and Jessie Liu on a third Hana Matsuri, a Japanese fusion restaurant with locations in Westminster and Lakewood.

But Pham has put his own flair on the new spot, which opened last month at 658 S. Colorado Blvd. in Glendale. He’s st...