Six years ago Tom Atkins and Uta Harnischfeger introduced me to Sandobe, a miniscule 4-table Korean sushi den on 11th & 1st run by a genial husband-and-wife chef-and-waitress team. For a while, it was our secret–we’d rush in at least once a week to inhale the flawless seaweed and cucumber salad appetizer, and watch some of New York’s freshest fish cut into delectable rainbow rolls or Stefan rolls. Slowly.

But then word got out. The restaurant expanded, and expanded again; the chef delegated to a team of new chefs; the East Village was discovered by people who 2 years previous would have preferred a holiday in Haiti to a jaunt down Saint Marks; the experience became diluted as reams of diners who just didn’t know any better became Sandobe’s mainstay; they barely noticed the seaweed salad and quaffed their shabby rolls contentedly.

I’m glad he cashed in, but my East Village sushi dealer was no longer providing me with the fix I needed, and for the past few years I’ve been using sushi at Takahachi, a very capable restaurant populated by virtuoso chefs and rightly popular for it. But for all the obvious bliss of dipping a piece of slightly seared pepper-crusted tuna into mustard sauce and then into one’s mouth, Takahachi lacks the intimacy and personal attention I’ve craved ever since the early days of Sandobe.

It seems the prayers I would have said had I been religious but which I didn’t because I’m not have finally been answered, in the form of Zen One, a new miniscule 4-table sushi restaurant that opened this week–a mere 6 flights of stairs below my apartment, on the ground floor of 109 Saint Marks. They too have a husband-and-wife team; they too have a great seaweed appetizer, but here the cucumber is laced with crab, and it works. The first time I ate at Zen One they brought out what looked like an ancient earthenware Korean Bunsen burner, and placed on it an open-faced clam that proceeded to cook in its own juices. It was incredibly tasty, but fun too, and it was presented with a sense of humor. The rolls are delicious, and the presentation is beautiful. I’ll be dragging everybody there in the coming months, as long as they know how to keep a secret.

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