Uchi, considered the best Japanese restaurant in Austin, will hit Denver this summer in the new S*Park development at 26th and Lawrence Streets. Ahead of its opening, the restaurant’s James Beard-awarded chef and owner Tyson Cole is obviously going to be teasing his new audience with some pop-ups.

Cole will be at The Source’s RiNo Yacht Club next Friday and Saturday, April 20 and 21, first for a night of cocktails and passed maki and nigiri appetizers, then for a sit-down, seven-course meal with drink pairings. The Friday night event is free but requires an RSVP, and the Saturday night dinner costs $95 and also requires a reservation. When it opens, Uchi Denver will be the first restaurant outside of Texas for Cole and his Hai Hospitality group.

“We’re going to be very careful with our growth,” Hai CEO Tony Montero told Eater Austin back in November. The restaurant group chose Denver for similarities to its home city. At its new Denver S*Park location, a rooftop greenhouse space and nearby community garden will help supply the restaurant. “We want to get local as quickly as possible,” Cole also told Eater Austin.

Cole won a James Beard Foundation Award for Best Chef: Southwest for Uchi in 2011. The restaurant focuses on contemporary Japanese cuisine offering sushi, sashimi, grilled yakimono vegetables and meats, and chef’s omakase tastings. Uchi is part of a six-restaurant group in Texas; the latest opening there under Cole, Hai Hospitality, and pitmaster Aaron Franklin is Loro, an Asian smokehouse.