A fast-casual sushi bar from Top Chef alum Katsuji Tanabe and restaurateur Anthony Rapillo opened this week inside Boxyard RTP, taking over the former Lagoon Bar space on the development's second level. Katsushi serves hand rolls made with marinated fish and rice folded into toasted seaweed wrappers, along with rice bowls, crab salad, spicy tuna with truffle mayo, marinated salmon, and vibrant tropical drinks like a passion fruit and shrimp offering.
The opening marks the latest expansion for Tanabe and Rapillo, who have quickly built out a footprint across Research Triangle Park since first teaming up. As reported by the News & Observer, the pair previously opened La Taqueria in Boxyard RTP and count Flour & Barrel on Glenwood Avenue among their joint restaurant projects, alongside several other collaborations. In a news release cited by the same report, Tanabe said diners can see fresh ingredients and try something different each visit with the hand rolls.
Katsushi's early concept looked a little different than what landed on the menu. When the bar was first announced, it was envisioned with a 16-hour broth shoyu ramen as a centerpiece dish, according to Raleigh Magazine. Ramen bowls were part of that original plan, but the outlet notes Katsushi currently offers no ramen bowls, with the August opening instead focused on made-to-order hand rolls and spiked tea or matcha drinks.
Building On La Taqueria's Success
Katsushi is Tanabe and Rapillo's second venture inside Boxyard RTP, following La Taqueria by Katsuji, which opened in the former Leroy's space in January 2025. That spot serves Mexico City street-style tacos cooked together in a traditional multi-protein choricero broth pan, per Raleigh Magazine's earlier reporting. Boxyard RTP itself, opened in 2021 by the Research Triangle Foundation, is a 15,000-square-foot cargotecture development built from repurposed shipping containers designed to incubate small food, beverage, and retail businesses, according to 35 North.
Katsushi is open Tuesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. The bar's arrival adds another layer to a restaurant group that has grown steadily since Tanabe and Rapillo's first collaboration at Flour & Barrel in downtown Raleigh, which featured made-from-scratch pastas, breads, and an entertainment-focused cocktail bar.
High Horse Eyes a Return After Pandemic Closure
Tanabe's highest-profile Raleigh project, High Horse, is also in the works for a revival in RTP. The live-fire fusion concept originally opened in late 2019 in Raleigh's historic City Market but closed permanently in July 2020 due to financial strain from the COVID-19 pandemic, as detailed by Cary Magazine. In October 2025, Tanabe, Rapillo, and investor Andrew Rava signed a lease for a 5,000-square-foot standalone pavilion at Horseshoe at Hub RTP to bring High Horse back in 2026, complete with a live-fire show kitchen, an indoor-outdoor bar, and a patio overlooking Burdens Creek, according to the Research Triangle Foundation.
As of April, Rapillo had secured build-out permits for the new High Horse, targeting a fall 2026 launch with a center-stage show kitchen, Hoodline reported in its earlier Hub RTP dining coverage. Between High Horse's 2020 closure and his current comeback, Tanabe re-emerged in the Triangle in 2022 by partnering with LM Restaurants to open A'Verde Cocina + Tequila Library, a 5,500-square-foot Mexican spot in Cary, per Cary Magazine's profile.
A Bigger Bet on RTP's Dining Future
The flurry of openings from Tanabe and Rapillo lines up with a much larger transformation underway at Research Triangle Park. The park is currently developing Hub RTP, a 100-acre, $1.5 billion mixed-use downtown district meant to turn the historically office-bound, 7,000-acre research park into a walkable live-work-play destination with residential, hotel, and dining space, according to the Research Triangle Foundation. That buildout is reshaping what was once a daytime-only office corridor into a destination with actual nightlife.
Tanabe, who was born in Mexico City to a Japanese father and a Mexican mother, competed on Season 12 of Bravo's Top Chef in 2014 and won Food Network's Chopped before moving to Raleigh in 2019, according to INDY Week. The News & Observer notes he has appeared in multiple seasons of Top Chef and on other national cooking shows, background that helps explain the fusion of Japanese and Mexican influences running through his RTP projects. With Katsushi now open and High Horse targeting a fall debut, Tanabe and Rapillo's footprint across the park continues to grow.
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