Tag: Saltwater Crab

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Hungry Memphis

Sushi Jimmi Will Stay in Memphis

Jimmy "Sushi Jimmi" Sinh was moving to Orlando, but he's decided to stay in Memphis.

Jimmy “Sushi Jimmi” Sinh was going to move to Orlando, but he’s staying in Memphis, where he’ll continue to do his private chef jobs.

For now, he’s taking a two-month vacation at his home in the country near Memphis. “I don’t know what I want to do yet, but, so far, I just want to continue doing my private chef-ing,” Sinh says. “So, that’s what I’ve been trying to do, trying to get people to reserve more dates and book up the rest of the year.  If I don’t, somebody else will. The main thing is I’m going to take two months to relax and spend some time with my wife, my kids.”

Sinh and his family talked it over, he says. “We don’t want to move the family when the kids are so young. And we just felt like the kids need to bond a little more as a family.”

Part of his family was moving to Texas. “I was moving in one direction, the other part of my family in another direction. We feel like the family would be split a little too far. We decided to stay back a little bit and raise the family here.”

Long range plans include starting another food truck. “The last one I did I just pretty much overwhelmed myself. Like I was just trying to do too much. This one, I’m going to still keep the sushi. And I want my customers to eat a lot cleaner. I don’t know if I’m going to have a lot of the stuff I’d normally have, like a lot of fried stuff. Everything would just be cooked a lot cleaner. And have a lot more healthier options and do more sashimi and nigiri on this truck.”

The food truck won’t be called “Sushi Jimmi,” he says. “It’s going to be called something else. I want to come out with a different brand. Still have it made by Sushi Jimmi.”

Sinh wants to chill for a couple of months. “We live in the countryside and I’m loving it.”

And, he says, “I’m more of a country boy. I love large land. I don’t like to be in the city. And when I’m home I like to be in my own personal space. I don’t want to be in a noisy environment or anything like that.”

As for his plan to move to Orlando, Sinh says, “I was going to grab just a regular job and just kind of get a feel of how things work out there. But working all these years I never really took a nice vacation for myself or took the family out on a nice vacation. It makes you hate where you are in one spot and makes you not appreciate where you are.”

Sinh, who moved to Memphis from an Orlando suburb in 1995,  closed his first restaurant, “Sushi Jimmi,” and food truck in May 2019. Sinh, who gained legions of fans, went on to work at Saltwater Crab, La Hacienda Mexican Restaurant, and, finally, at Saito 2.

 “When I shut Sushi Jimmi down, I hopped back into my work. Worked really hard like I did at Sushi Jimmi. I never gave myself a break, so I kind of burned myself out and just hated what I was doing. That’s why I decided I’m taking a break. Take two months off. Give myself some ‘me’ time and think about what I can do for this city. And that’s what I’m doing right now. I’m actually driving out of town to pick up some stuff to improve my private chef-ing. I want to bring Sushi Jimmi to you. Make sure it’s something you’ll never forget. It’s one of those experiences you’ve got to have.”

And, as for opening another restaurant of his own some day, Sinh says, “I don’t know about a restaurant just because of how bad of an experience I had when I had my restaurant. I’d hire people and people don’t want to go to work. Look at right now. Nobody wants to work. I don’t want to have to deal with those situations any more.

“I’m a one-stop shop. I come fix the food, serve you, and clean up. I like to keep it simple. I don’t like to put too much on myself anymore.”

And, he says, “That’s how I feel right now.”

Does Sinh plan on maybe moving again? “Not any time soon. Right now, we’re settled for a while. At this moment, we’ll worry about what’s going on now. Let’s give this city what  the city deserves, which is good food.”

People can book Sinh by going to “Sushi Jimmi” on Facebook and Instagram.

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Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Sushi Jimmi Leaving Memphis

Jimmy "Sushi Jimmi" Sinh

Sushi Jimmi is moving again.

But this time it’s out of town.

Jimmy “Sushi Jimmi” Sinh plans to move to Orlando, Florida in May. His last day as head chef at Saito 2 restaurant in Cordova is May 15th, he says.

“It’s a better opportunity for me, the wife, and kids,” Sinh says. “We’ve been living here so long. This is our next move as the family. The whole family is moving.”

That’s his wife and six children, including a baby girl on the way, Sinh says. They currently are living in Atoka, Tennessee.

Why Orlando? “It’s a tourist city. More than four million tourists a year. Things are opening back up and I just want to expand my career to a bigger city. It’s a better opportunity for me. I don’t know what my plans are. I don’t want to speak too soon.”

But, he says, “I’m always going to be cooking.”

Sinh moved to Memphis from a suburb in Orlando in 1995. “I was only down in Florida a year and we moved here.”

Since that time, he made his mark and gained a legion of fans.

He closed his restaurant, Sushi Jimmi, which he owned for three years on Poplar, on May 23, 2019. He closed his food truck the next day.

Shortly after, he reopened the restaurant with his brother as owner and Sinh as chef. It closed for good soon after. 

Sinh then went to work at Saltwater Crab, La Hacienda Mexican Restaurant and, finally, at Saito 2.

Will he return to Memphis some day? “I told myself if I ever become really successful I’ll come back to Memphis and invest my money,” Sinh says. “I wouldn’t mind being an investor here. Do business in Memphis.”

Something in the food industry, he says. “Or just have another restaurant again here.”

Memphis, he says, is “home to me. I don’t want to leave, but it’s good for my future and my kids’ future. That’s more important than anything else. I made a pretty good impression here. I want to see how far it will take me. To me, the sky’s the limit. I don’t have a limit. Anything I do, I want more and more and more. It just doesn’t  stop.”

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Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Sushi Jimmi to join La Hacienda Mexican Restaurant October 6th

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

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Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Best Bets: Sushi Jimmi’s Sushi Burger at Saltwater Crab

CREDIT: Michael Donahue

Michael Donahue

Jimmy ‘Sushi Jimmi’ Sinh and his ‘Sushi Burger’ at Saltwater Crab.


Thanks to the Memphis Sandwich Clique and Jimmy “Sushi Jimmi” Sinh, I think I’ve now tried everything when it comes to sandwiches.

I ate my first-ever Sushi Burger at Saltwater Crab.

Conrad Phillips, who is with Memphis Sandwich Clique, asked Sinh, who is Saltwater Crab executive chef/kitchen manager, if he could make a sushi sandwich for Memphis Sandwich Clique, which is an online local foodie group specializing in local, fresh, handmade sandwiches.

“They asked me and I told them, ‘Yeah. I could make it happen,’” Sinh says.

I was invited by Memphis Sandwich Clique founders Ryan Hopgood and Reuben Skahill to join them at Saltwater Crab. Phillips and his daughter, Brooke, and La Hacienda owner Dino Sarwar, rounded out the group.

On Fat Tuesday I ate the fattest piece of sushi I’ve ever eaten.

We loved the Sushi Burger, which is about the size of a jumbo hamburger. It resembles the old Hostess Snowball, but it sure doesn’t taste like one. It’s a savory, delicious concoction.

Like any good sandwich, you can hold it while you take a bite out of it.

“The buns are made of sushi rice,” Sinh says. “On top of the bun is furikake. That’s the seasoning that gives it the flavor. It’s a really good rice seasoning. You could eat the seasoning by itself.”

The seasoning is made of dried bonito fish, a little bit of sugar, sesame, and seaweed. “It just gives the perfect flavor to the sushi. If you were just to eat sushi rice by itself and put that on there, it’s perfect.”

As to why someone can hold the burger without it falling apart, Sinh says, “The rice is already sticky. I put a sheet of seaweed to hold it together.”

And now the patty. “The patty is made out of spicy tuna. The greens: I put seaweed salad and some microgreens inside. I also put avocado slices inside. Four slices of avocado, which gives it more a texture. Creamier flavor.”

The filling also includes dried chili. “That’s just more flavor. It doesn’t bite you in a spicy way.”

The Sushi Burger dates to Sinh’s old restaurant, Sushi Jimmi. “I actually made that when I had my restaurant. A customer requested it and I made it. It was never on the menu.”

It’s not on the Saltwater Crab menu, either. “Just ask Chef Jimmy to make one and I can make one any time of day. I have the ingredients in the house and I can make one.”

Sinh doesn’t end with Sushi Burgers. “Next time, I’ll make you guys sushi pizza,” he says.

Saltwater Crab is at 2509 Madison, (901) 922-5202

Michael Donahue

The Sushi Burger at Saltwater Crab.

Jimmy Sinh with Reuben Skahill and Ryan Hopgood of Memphis Sandwich Clique.

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Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Sushi Jimmi Joins Saltwater Crab

Jimmy Sinh


Sushi Jimmi — the man not the restaurant — will become chef/kitchen manager at Saltwater Crab.


Jimmy “Sushi Jimmi” Sinh, owner of the now defunct Sushi Jimmi Asian fusion restaurant at 2895 Poplar, will become chef/kitchen manager at Saltwater Crab beginning January 15th, says owner Gary Lin.

Saltwater Crab, which opened in July, serves a range of fare from seafood to steaks. It also served sushi. “I took sushi away and people complained,” Lin says. “They wanted more sushi. I needed somebody hard working in the kitchen to take it to a different level.”

Why Sinh? “A lot of people in the whole city know him,” Lin says. And, he added, “All my servers, bartenders, know him. They wanted me to bring him back.”

Sinh initially closed Sushi Jimmi on May 23rd, saying he wanted to spend more time with his family. He said 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 June 15th, but it closed for a second time at the end of July.

“I just shut my restaurant down,” Sinh says. “I didn’t want to be bothered for a while. I spent six months in someone else’s kitchen, just trying to get my mind straight for a little while. I wanted a little more time with my family. Gary approached me about two weeks ago and we talked about it.”

Sinh will bring back sushi favorites from Sushi Jimmi, but he says he also will be in charge of the entire Saltwater Crab menu. “I’ll be tweaking the menu. Redoing everything. Making it better.”

A Sushi Jimmi steak? “Mine is not just a salt-and-pepper steak. Mine is more well seasoned. A lot thicker. A thick cut of meat. I want the quality to be better.” Sinh added, “I want a very strong team. In about three weeks we want to come out strong and we want to give Memphis something to remember.”

That will include “great atmosphere, live music,” he says. “We’re thinking about doing live music — more specials, more drinks. We’re going to give Memphis everything they want. It’s going to be a very stressful three weeks. I’m going to be sleepless. But it’s good for you. I’m a chef. We’re going to start 2020 off with Sushi Jimmi back in town.”

Saltwater Crab is located at 2059 Madison.

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Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Saltwater Crab To Open July 1st

With its red, white, and light blue exterior and generous windows, Saltwater Crab resembles the type of restaurant that should have miles of blue water and a white beach behind it.

But no, it’s in Midtown – 2059 Madison near Overton Square.

You don’t need to see sand and water when you’re inside the restaurant; the cuisine will transport you to whatever oceanfront you want to visit.

General manager Sam Miller describes the food as “coastal influence with a Southern drawl. ‘Coastal’ being wherever there’s a coast.”

That means “global – East Coast United States, West Coast United States, east coast Japan,” Miller says. “We’re going to be playing with Southern ingredients and incorporating them into dishes we’re going to offer.”

He describes the look of the sleek, modern-looking restaurant as “clean and classy.”

Guests got a sneak peek of Saltwater Crab at a tasting, which was held June 24th.

It actually was more than a tasting; dishes kept coming out of the kitchen and from the sushi bar. The fare included oysters, grilled salmon, tuna, sushi, steak, and even a crab boil. Desserts included key lime pie, of course.

The cuisine was “a preview of what’s on the menu, the style of food we’re going to be cooking,” Miller says.


And, he says, “The majority of the seafood will be sold at market prices.”

The restaurant will feature a “late night menu on Fridays and Saturdays.”

Saltwater Crab also will feature “live music from time to time.”


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Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Saltwater Crab Going into Indian Pass Space

Saltwater Crab, a seafood restaurant, is going in the old Indian Pass space near Overton Square. It is set to open June 24th.

While the restaurant will be owned by an out-of-town restaurateur, Gary Lin, there will be a lot of familiar names involved, including Cliff Ward (Second Line), Sam Miller (Erling Jensen, Madison Hotel), and Andy Knight (Loflin Yard, Carolina Watershed, and Railgarten).

Knight says, “Nothing’s been successful in that spot, and I would love for this spot to work.”

According to Knight, the place was gutted, and a second kitchen was added upstairs.

Lin says he was very attracted to the site. “I’ve been to a lot of different spaces all over the country. When I first saw this space, I fell in love with it.”

The plan, says Lin, is to really take advantage of the patio space. He’s removed the large metal archway that read “Indian Pass” (and was at one time “Midtown is Memphis” during the Chiwawa days) and will replace it with one that reads “Midtown Memphis.”

“It’s not the old sign,” he says. “I had to make a new one. It was important for locals.”

Lin, who owns restaurants in Atlanta (including the Asian barbecue spot Smoke + Duck), says that now that he’s in the Memphis market, he’s waiting to see how he’s received before he considers opening more restaurants in the city. “I want to see how Memphis treats me first, if they approve of my management style.”

The menu is expansive, though still being edited at press time. As of now, there are oysters (some Gulf, mostly from the East Coast). There are crab cakes. There will be sushi.

“This real estate needs to have a purpose,” Knight says. “If we can stretch out the square all the way down to Huey’s, we’ll have this whole stretch. Maybe get people to walk a few steps. It will be awesome.”