DŌZO Japanese American Kitchen: From Katsu Kart to upscale Charlotte restaurant
Update: DŌZO Japanese American Kitchen has announced plans to leave its Thrift Road location in September 2025 and will move to East Boulevard.
Peeling shrimp on the docks of Murrells Inlet.
Hibachi and sushi chef.
The Culinary Institute of America.
Sous chef.
Washing dishes.
Executive chef.
Barbecue.
The Carolinas’ food mecca of Charleston.
California, then back.
Management, failures and burnout.
The award-winning Katsu Kart food truck.
And now finally, creating inspired Japanese dishes in an intimate 12-seat restaurant in Charlotte’s Wesley Heights neighborhood …
Whew.
The chefs of DŌZO Japanese American Kitchen, Perry Saito and John Gamble, sure know how to take a circuitous route to realizing their dreams.
After so many experiences and adventures in the restaurant industry, the team is relishing the creativity of owning their own space inside City Kitch at 2200 Thrift Road. They take pride in serving inspired, composed dishes using the freshest local ingredients.
“Food is everything to us,” Gamble told CharlotteFive. “This is our baby.”
In the small kitchen, you may find Gamble hunched over, delicately draping pickled onion over a dish of caramelized broccoli atop a nutty sesame dressing. Don’t call it a side — this vegetable shines with main entree energy.
Perry is frying up a restaurant favorite — a mountain of crab fried rice with popping orbs of roe, pork belly, Urban Gourmet Farms shiitake and oyster mushrooms and finished with creamy dots of Japanese Kewpie mayonnaise. The dishes feel both upscale and comforting — exactly the vibe the pair has worked to achieve.
Perusing the menu, you’ll find favorites on the small plates menu, including edamame served with sea salt or tobanjan chili sauce and tsukemono, a chef’s pick of pickles that includes watermelon radish, cucumber, onion and house-made kimchi.
At lunch time, there are several versions of a Japanese classic — the bento box. Try the North Carolina flounder — the secret to its hearty crunch is nama panko, which stays crispy to lock in flavor — with a simple green salad with zingy ginger dressing, rice topped with a smattering of furikake and even a dollop of potato salad, harkening back to Perry’s Southern roots. The bento box miso soup is just … special: Silken tofu and wakame bathed in a rich, homemade fish stock that touches one’s soul.
The chefs also make it a point to serve lesser-known Japanese dishes, such as okonomiyaki, a cabbage pancake with North Carolina shrimp and braised pork belly.
“We’re trying to keep things fresh and exciting, and stay inspired,” the reason behind weekly menu updates, Perry said. “We wanted refined, more composed dishes with higher ticket prices for dinner, and staples at a lower price point so you can come in weekly. We’ve had great feedback from customers.”
The Road to DŌZO
A fourth generation restaurant industry worker, Perry learned the ropes by working under his father, Saito, in a sushi bar in Myrtle Beach. His dad, a native of Japan, put him to work there around age 13, when he started getting in trouble. His mom, Sheryl, managed restaurants, and with both parents working busy schedules, that left Perry with idle hands.
“It started as punishment,” Perry said. “It kind of backfired because I ended up loving it.”
Even before that, Perry earned quarters cutting fish and peeling shrimp alongside commercial fisherman in Murrell’s Inlet, South Carolina.
His great-grandfather owned a car hop restaurant, Dargan’s Grill, on 5th Avenue in Myrtle Beach in the 1950s. His grandmother, Alma Jean Perry of Gastonia, is a major influence.
“My grandmother taught me to cook with love,” Perry said. “I think of my family every time I step in the kitchen. It’s a very interesting pedigree.”
In his late teens, Perry became a successful hibachi chef. Fun while it lasted and an opportunity to make good money, he said, but he yearned to make his own creative dishes and cook in a more expressive way.
He went on a mission to work with the best chefs at the best restaurants he could find. He worked at hotels and country clubs and became an executive chef at 25, a job he says he wasn’t ready for.
After the exec chef position, Perry was on the move again and headed south to Charleston, landing with the prestigious Indigo Road Hospitality Group known for its top restaurants and James Beard Award winners.
Then the pandemic dealt a blow to the restaurant industry. Perry worked for a time in California, while COVID restrictions made restaurant life difficult.
“I noticed the food trucks were still open, though,” he said.
Having worked in every position in restaurants, Perry returned to the Carolinas. He started Katsu Kart in 2021, developing a following that craves fried Japanese-American chicken sandwiches and potato salad.
Perry and his sous chef and co-owner at DŌZO, Gamble, crossed paths at Rooster’s, where Perry worked part-time and Gamble was sous chef. The rest is Charlotte culinary history.
A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America’s distinguished Hyde Park location, Gamble has worked in a variety of positions and was an integral part of the development of Katsu Kart and now DŌZO.
Gamble began his chef’s journey as a student at East Mecklenburg High School, as part of a winning junior chefs team. His first professional job was dishwasher. Later, he managed Charlotte’s Noble Smoke barbecue restaurant and found himself burned out with paperwork and administrative tasks.
It was time for Gamble to regroup and consider his future. He decided to hit the road with Perry in the sky blue Katsu Kart food truck emblazoned with bright, Mario Kart-inspired graphics, slinging Japanese comfort food.
“I thought I’d make chicken sandwiches for three months,” he said. “It’s been four years.”
New Kart Adventures Coming Up
For Katsu Kart fans, the brand will live on, Perry said. The truck gets rolling again in March, with a full year of adventures booked.
“We’re circling back to the places we loved with the truck,” Perry said. That includes the Matthews Community Farmer’s Market, where the team met suppliers like Urban Gourmet, Wild Hope Farm and Street Fare Farm, and Open Tap and Super Abari Game Bar. “There’s going to be a lot going on.”
Up next also is growth and planning more exciting dishes for DŌZO, as the owners, chefs, cooks, dishwashers and food runners. The restaurant’s A5 Wagyu beef dinner for New Year’s was a huge success and more events are on the calendar for 2025.
This week, there’s the Smash Burger Party from 4:30-9 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 12. Three smash burger varieties on house-made milk buns with sides of katsu onion rings and hand-cut fries are on the menu.
Great timing has created a lasting partnership for Perry and Gamble, and they’ll continue to inspire each other through a shared love of food, and stay humble thanks to that long road of life lessons they learned coming through the ranks of the industry.
“A million small things done right equals success,” Perry said. “At the end of the day, both of us are just cooks. We finally have a stage to present it the way we want.”
DŌZO Japanese American Kitchen
Location: 2200 Thrift Rd Suite 1, Charlotte, NC 28208
Instagram: @dozoclt
This story was originally published February 11, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
