MIchael Donahue
David Sinh and Jimmy Sinh at Sushi Jimmi.
Sushi Jimmi will reopen June 15th.
The Asian fusion restaurant at 2895 Poplar, closed May 23rd, but Jimmy Sinh, who owned the restaurant, says it will be back with a new owner — his brother David Sinh, 26. Jimmy now is the head chef in the kitchen.
The restaurant will celebrate its grand opening with a buffet style dinner, which will be held from 5 to 9 p.m.
“I was going to close and move to Florida,” says Jimmy, as he prepped cucumbers, peeling and slice them before putting them in cold water.
Jimmy says he put a quarter of a million dollars in the restaurant before he closed, but, he says, “My family didn’t want to let it go. They knew how much money I spent on it.”
He had just repaired his walk-in cooler before he closed. A new owner would be “all set. Nothing to fix.”
Also, he says, about 700 people packed his restaurant the night he closed. The restaurant was still going strong that night after the restaurant’s usual closing time.
Jimmy wanted his brother to take the reins. “Nobody deserved it more than my brother. He worked on it since day one. April 28, 2015.”
That’s when they opened their food trailer at Food Truck Fest, David says. David, who was born in Los Angeles, was working at his cosmetology job when Jimmy asked him to help him with the food trailer.
David’s plans for now include expanding the menu, which will include adding more salads, more rice dishes, children’s options, and “better desserts.”
He also wants to put in a bar, where he can serve wine, liquor, and beer.
And, he says, “I want to do a patio, for sure.”
He wants Sushi Jimmi to be “a place to hang out. A great date night place at night time and a great place to bring families in the day time.”
Jimmy wants to take over the kitchen so he can create a better staff. “I gave up my position to focus more in the kitchen.”
He had to try to focus on three things at the same time when he was the owner. He was a father with four children and recently had a newborn. He had to deal with the staff and he had to deal with the food.
“You’re burning your candle on three ends — both ends and the middle. You’re getting burned out really fast.”
Now he won’t have to worry about the front of the house. “No stress over my shoulder.”
David says he eventually would like to buy his own land and build the restaurant the way he’d like it to be built. But the restaurant definitely would be in the 901 area. And he’d like to “branch out to 615.”
Jimmy says they have no plans as yet for the Sushi Jimmi food truck. “Don’t know yet,” he says, adding he doesn’t have the staff to run it.
