Fast-food sushi thrives in city
Sushi North marks 10 years of catering mostly to local residents
Meagan Leonard
Northern News Services
Wednesday, February 10, 2016
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Yellowknife's Japanese tourists are soon going to feel a lot more at home and local patrons will get a better understanding of the culture as one restaurant marks a decade.
Sushi North had a busy Saturday as the restaurant celebrated its 10th anniversary. From left are Mariko Katsura, owner Seiji Suzuki, Azusa Matsudaira, Hirouri Kobayashi, and Miyuki Takeboyashi. - Simon Whitehouse/NNSL photo |
After celebrating its 10th anniversary at the end of January, Sushi North is getting set to unveil a feature that doesn't include seaweed or raw fish. A month from now the restaurant will boast "washlet" toilets, which owner Seiji Suzuki hopes will appeal to Japanese tourists and make the city feel more like home. Sometimes dubbed, "wonder toilets," the fixtures are the standard in Japan, offering a heated seat and bidet function. Suzuki said he thought he would try them out.
"We're very excited," he said, during an interview at the restaurant Feb. 2.
Although the new washrooms might draw more Asian visitors to his venue, Suzuki says it's a bit of a misconception that most of the customers coming through his door are tourists.
"Sushi in Japan is so cheap and so nice and so fresh and so good, why would they come to Yellowknife to eat sushi?" he said. "They go have steak or pizza and maybe the fourth day when they need Japanese food they'll come down."
He says approximately 80 per cent of his customer base is comprised of Yellowknifers and his menu follows the North American fast-food style of sushi preparation. To offer more traditional fare, it would mean hiring a Japanese sushi chef but since the training takes five to 10 years and they are highly sought after, this is unrealistic, Suzuki said.
He added it is already challenging to find staff - if someone is able to cook Japanese food, that is typically enough.
"Employment is difficult here," he explained. "The foreign worker program is getting more restricted so that's a difficult thing when you want to hire people for here."
Suzuki said he would like to expand his menu to include other Japanese cuisine but does not see a market for it in the North. Since he has to import most items, including fish from Vancouver, the cost alone would be detrimental.
"With the shipping costs up to Yellowknife, it's really expensive, you're almost paying double so that's sort of difficult," he said, adding he uses some Arctic Char but generally NWT fish doesn't make good sushi. "Sushi is an ocean fish. Lake fish is not good for sushi, it has to be cooked."
When he arrived in Yellowknife 20 years ago to work as a pilot, Suzuki said he was disappointed to find there were no Japanese food options in the city. Today he is one of three, including grocery store take-out options. The only venture before his was the Sakura Japanese restaurant that operated out of the Explorer Hotel. It closed in 2004 after experiencing quality and staffing issues.
Although he has more competition with the opening of Sushi Cafe in 2010 and the take-out bars in the city's three supermarkets, Suzuki says he is happy to see more Japanese culinary culture making its way into the city. He says one of the best parts of his job is converting those who may be squeamish about eating raw fish into sushi lovers.
"Still some people say, 'No fish! Sushi? I can't eat it. Seaweed? No, no, no!'" he says with a laugh. "It's nice and healthy food. The Japanese have some of the longest life spans across the world, that kind of comes from the food, so I say, 'Why don't you come down and have a look and try it?'"
