Jimmy ‘Sushi Jimmi’ Sinh
Is Sushi Jimmi about to become “Taco Jimmi”?
“No, no, no,” says Jimmy “Sushi Jimmi” Sinh. But the Memphis chef has taken a job at La Hacienda Mexican restaurant in Cordova, where he will begin working October 6th.
Sinh has been working as executive chef at Saltwater Crab, where he originally began working earlier this year.
He closed his restaurant, Sushi Jimmi Asian fusion restaurant, at 2895 Poplar on May 23rd, 2019, saying he wanted to spend more time with his family. He closed his food truck the next day. Sinh says he put too much money ($250,000) into the restaurant, though he says it was successful. He planned to move to Florida, but his family didn’t want to let the restaurant go. He reopened Sushi Jimmi at the same location on June 15th, but it closed for a second time at the end of July.
“Last year, when I closed my restaurant down, I lost everything,” Sinh says. “And when COVID-19 hit, I lost even more. I lost completely everything. And my friend Temoor Sarwar and his family own [La Hacienda] and he asked me to come in and work at the restaurant serving my food.”
But before making plans to join La Hacienda, Sinh went to Saltwater Crab, where he originally worked for about two and a half months. “They hired me and I took care of what needed to be taken care of.”
And, he says, he “also gave the customers what the customers were missing and really wanted. Really good food in Midtown. They needed a good sushi restaurant in Midtown in the Overton Square area. I decided to bring in my sushi, which everyone missed, and it went really well.”
Sinh got laid off from Saltwater Crab when the restaurant closed during the pandemic, but he returned when it reopened for business last May. They’re now doing “amazing numbers” at Saltwater Crab, says Sinh. “That means we’re doing something right.”
September 30th will be Sinh’s last day at Saltwater Crab. He’s proud of what he accomplished there. “I created this for Midtown to enjoy.”
But, he says, “I want to do more things for myself. It’s my turn to proceed with my chef life, which is what I’m doing. So, I’m collaborating with different chefs. Anyone who wants to collaborate with me and just make a quick menu for the weekend. All around the country. I could go to California next week and collaborate with a chef for two days and move to the next city.
“That’s always been my dream. To travel and see different things. I haven’t been to a lot of places. I’ve always been trapped behind the box. I want to get outside the box to places I’ve never been and try new food. The only way to be a good chef is to travel.”
Sinh also plans to be on camera. “I’m planning to make a YouTube channel to show people where to go eat. And I’ll be doing a few scenarios to show people different places I’ve traveled to. Also, I’ll be showing people how to cook a certain food. Explain to them the knowledge they need to know when they eat at the restaurant.”
People need to know how to eat something correctly, he says. “If you don’t eat it right, you’ll have the worst experience. That’s very important to me because I want them to enjoy my food. Not just pay for it.”
Sinh will collaborate as a chef with Sarwar at La Hacienda. “He is the main person there. He is the manager. He is the chef. And it’s his family’s restaurant. We’re collaborating anywhere from three to four days a week.”
They will have a taste tasting at the restaurant in less than a week. “We’re going to be cooking all day to test out the food we’re going to put on the menu.”
The food will be Asian and Mexican, Sinh says. “It’ll be fusion. A little bit of both. Everything that I ever really cooked has a little bit of Hispanic feeling in it ‘cause I’m from Los Angeles, California, and there’s a lot of Mexican and Asian fused together.”
For now, Memphis will be Sinh’s home base, but he plans to move out of town when his family moves. “I’m living with my parents. I’ve always been a family-oriented guy. I go where my parents want to go. You only have one (set of) parents. You don’t want to end up not being with them on their last day or whatever. I want to be that good son that takes care of their parents. Where they want to go is where I want to go.”
That includes Sinh’s wife and their five kids. “Pretty much the whole, entire family.”
As for his nickname, Sinh says it was when he was working at the old Saki restaurant “One day I heard one of my customers just call me ‘Sushi Jimmi.’ And that is exactly where it came from.”
La Hacienda is at 1760 North Germantown Parkway in Cordova.
Saltwater Crab is at 2059 Madison; (901) 624-2920
