When my dad opened his own law practice in 1984, he moved into the historic 1888 Nevitt building at 109 East Main in downtown Bozeman. I have vivid memories of climbing out of his east-facing, second-story window and onto the roof next door. It was thrilling to be up there, seeing Main Street from this vantage point. I would run as fast as I could to the east edge of this flat roof, at which point I was greeted by the wall of the Crystal’s rooftop bar. Being nine years old, I always turned around and climbed back inside dad’s office.

It turns out that the finish line of this little sprint ended just beyond the roof of what today is Hooked Sushi, a tiny ramen and sushi restaurant at 119 East Main. Known for its creative rolls, house-made ramen dishes, and effervescent atmosphere, Hooked has been a downtown fixture in this spot since 2021, when owner Jon Slye and his wife Kelsey took the space over from Montana Fish Company. Slye has been in the Bozeman restaurant world for a long time, and locals recognize him from Copper and the now-closed Red Chair, among others. But Hooked Sushi is his chef-d’oeuvre, along with the adjacent coffee shop Zocalo, and sitting at the arch top window watching the people, cars, and dogs of Main Street roll by, I got to hear all about it.

Katie Thomas: How was Hooked conceptualized?

Jon Slye: During the pandemic, we were looking at different spaces and ideas for a new restaurant. After talking with Luke, who had Montana Fish Company, we felt like sushi would be a great idea. I’m originally from Seattle, so I’m a fish kid. I grew up eating a lot of seafood. When I moved here, I did the steak and whiskey concepts for a while. That was a great experience, but after doing that for some time I just felt like I was ready to dive into sushi, and it’s been amazing. Every year we’re growing, and that’s part of why we took over the Zocalo space. They kind of go hand-in-hand. I was just chatting with someone the other day about how some people still don’t know we’re here after five years, but in spite of that we continue to be crazy busy.

KT: What would you like people to experience when they walk through your doors?

JS: I hope that people can really feel that they’re somewhere local, in terms of our staff, the space, and being in downtown Bozeman. We want it to be inviting, but obviously, our product is worldly.

KT: I love how intimate it feels in here.

JS: Yes, that’s our goal. I want Main Street to hold on to some small spots, you know?



KT: What would you say makes Hooked unique in the Bozeman food scene?

JS: For us, our driving factor was fresh fish. We pushed hard on that coming out of the gate, because we felt like that was the only way this was going to work, if we could get a product in here that was consistent, yet fresh. So we do a lot of airport runs throughout the week, bringing in products four to five times a week. I think the product we have is amazing, so we hold to that. Also, we chose to be small – we only have enough space for four rollers, and our capacity is just 49 (plus eight outside when weather permits). That means reservations are a good idea. It’s not required, but it helps, and that way folks don’t have to wait. But we are intimate and cozy, and we like that.

KT: How do you describe your food?

JS: I would describe it as fresh and scratch-made. Our ramen is actually one of our most popular dishes. We’ve got our maki rolls, we’ve got our sashimis, things like that. But for our ramen, we do our tonkotsu, which is sort of a Japanese bone broth, from scratch. We do our veggie broth from scratch. We’re cooking those stocks down and building them all day. I’d put our ramen up against a lot of ramens, even in big cities. I think it’s pretty amazing. So our big drive is for everything to stay out of the freezer, for everything to be as fresh as possible, and to be made here.

KT: From where do you source your fish?

JS: A lot of stuff comes out of Hawaii — like our ahis, our tombo. We work with Santa Barbara Fish Market quite a bit; they fly products like bluefin out of LAX up to us. Then we also get stuff from Japan, but our two main ones are Hawaii and Santa Barbara. And that’s a fun thing about Bozeman: we have a lot of people that travel through who know a lot about fish, and we also see a lot of people who don’t know maybe as much about it but are just excited to eat a good, fresh product. So it’s a wide variety. It’s cool to see people learn about fish, and to see people enjoy it.

KT: Are there any local purveyors you work with that you would like to shout out?

JS: Yes, we use Montana Wagyu for our pork bellies, for our ramen. We get our goat cheese from Amaltheia Organic Dairy, and we get a wide variety of greens from Chance Farm. It’s been fun — it’s a beautiful thing to get these local options that we didn’t have before and to see these purveyors grow. We also started using Community Craft Greens, which supplies a lot of our microgreens, like garlic and wasabi. And next door at Zocalo, we’ve started offering Yard Sale Bagels, and they’re amazing. We’re getting people now that are coming in and buying bags of them.

KT: Speaking of Zocalo, how is that actually pronounced? I keep hearing (and saying) it all the different ways.

JS: Zócalo is pronounced “ZO-ca-lo,” emphasis on first syllable. It means “city center” in Spanish.

KT: Thank you! Now, what menu item do regulars keep coming back for?

JS: In terms of our rolls, our Johnny Ringo is probably one of our most popular. That’s futomaki, so it’s a bigger size roll, with ahi, goat cheese, and avocado on the inside, and then we flash-fry it and top it with spicy mayo and eel sauce. For our fish-forward ones, our Yojimbo (Hamachi, avocado, tempura scallion) and the Ramblin’ Man (tempura shrimp, spicy tuna, avocado, cucumber) are popular. Of course, our ramen as well.

KT: Do you personally have a favorite menu item?

JS: That depends, but I like sashimis, you know? Straight fish. We do a lot of what we call dressed sashimis, where we’ll take a five-piece ahi cut and put a wide variety of things on it, from fried garlic to spicy ponzu, things like that. It makes them a little fancy. 

KT: What do you enjoy most about being part of the Bozeman community?

JS: I’ve always really enjoyed it. I’ve owned restaurants here for years, so I’ve been part of this amazing restaurant community for a long time. It can be hard to see Bozeman grow as fast as it has, but at the same time, the growth is enjoyable when you’re in business. And I really like being downtown. It’s a tight community downtown, and Main Street’s fun. You can sit right here and just watch — it’s alive.

KT: What’s the best way for people to follow your menu and happenings?

JS: Our Instagram and Facebook. We post consistently on Instagram for our nightly specials.

KT: Anything else you’d like readers to know about Hooked?

JS: We love what we do. We’re a family-run business; it’s me, my wife, and my brother-in-law, who is our head chef. So it’s a little family spot. We love the small, intimate place we have going here. I always say that we’re small, but mighty. And we’ve got an amazing crew. These guys are super talented. They have to be, in such a skinny space. So again, we encourage reservations, so that everyone who wants to get in can get in. We’re pretty packed on a Friday night.

Never mind Friday; it was packed by 5:30 on a recent Wednesday when I last ate at Hooked. But it was a relaxed packed, because my husband and I didn’t feel rushed as we savored an incredible meal of rich miso soup, hoisin- and sesame seed-drenched green beans, and several colorful rolls. May I suggest the Going to the Sun specialty roll (real crab, avocado, and tempura scallion, topped with king salmon, citrus tobiko, and yuzu soy), with a sparkling, coral-colored glass of Sommariva brut rosé on the side? And sit at the counter if you can – it’s fun to watch the team work their magic as they roll cucumbers, tempura shrimp, avocado, crab, and more into rice and nori. Everyone from your server to the person sitting next to you at the counter — who will likely become your new friend — is warm and friendly. And there probably won’t be a small child racing back and forth on the rooftop above your head, but if you hear something, just chalk it up to a little poltergeist from 1984.