May and Jimmy “Sushi Jimmi” Sinh at their new restaurant, Poke Paradise. (Photo: Michael Donahue)
Jimmy “Sushi Jimmi” Sinh is back with a new restaurant, Poke Paradise, which he owns with his wife May.
The restaurant at 6343 Summer Avenue, Number 110, the former site of Izzy & Adam’s pizza restaurant, opened August 20th.
He will be selling poke bowls, including “Spicy Kimchi Taco,” “Fire Salmon,” “Rainbow,” and “Spicy Ninja.”
Poke, which originally is from Hawaii, was created by fishermen, Sinh says. The dish is made from raw fish, usually tuna and salmon, but other fish can be used as well. Then soy and sesame sauce and “other goodies like seaweed” are added, he says.
Sinh is including his famous sushi rolls, including the special rolls and traditional rolls. The menu also includes sushi burritos, sashimi, nigiri, and a range of appetizers and entrees.
“We brought back fried rice,” Sinh says. “We have Japanese cold noodles. And we have a few more things we’re going to add on once I have enough staff trained. We’ll run some specials on the weekends; depending on what the season is, we’ll match the season we’re in.”
Sinh owned the popular Sushi Jimmi Asian Fusion restaurant at 2895 Poplar Avenue. He closed that restaurant on May 23rd, 2019.
As to why he wanted to open a new restaurant, Sinh says, “I’ve been doing really well with Poke Paradise [food truck] for the past four years, and we’ve done a lot of catering and a lot of private dinners.”
But, he says, “What made us want this restaurant is, it’s more consistent for the customers to enjoy. We’re open all day long and they can walk in anytime they want to order anything they like on the normal menu.”
And people can now find him at one spot. “Instead of trying to follow me around town on the food truck or keep up with my schedule at the shop.”
“It has the perfect amount of space I needed,” he adds. “It’s not too big where I can’t manage it.”
There are “just enough tables” for customers to sit down and enjoy his food, Sinh says.
And he doesn’t need as much staff, but, he says, “I still need a good staff to run the place for me. Starting September is when I’ll get back to being on the road doing my catering and private dinners.”
Customers can still see him at his restaurant, but “a lot of the weekends I will be gone because every year there are the same customers who book me for catering and private dinners.”
His takeout shop at 5310 Crestview Road is now closed. “As for right now, the food truck is not operating because I want to get this restaurant up and going before we even talk about the food truck.”
Poke Paradise “is not a brand-new business. It’s just transitioned to a restaurant. And now that it’s a restaurant, customers can enjoy it more. And they can come in and see me during the weekdays.”
But Sinh might not get out of the kitchen that quickly to greet his fans. “I’m always in the back cooking. And that’s what I have always loved doing.”
Jimmy “Sushi Jimmi”
Sinh has become
somewhat of icon,
not just in our
publication, but in
Memphis as a whole. (Photo: Michael Donahue)
Jimmy “Sushi Jimmi” Sinh has been on a roll since he closed his old Sushi Jimmi Asian fusion restaurant on Poplar and his first food truck. That was three years ago. Now, he plans to open a new food truck, Poke Paradise, in mid-June. In the meantime he’s doing pop-ups and catering.
Sinh, 34, is an icon — some might say even a “legend” — in the Memphis food community. Articles about him blow up with hits, views, likes, and shares on social media. He’s created his own brand. And people love him.
Here at the Flyer, we’ve followed Sinh’s many moves — his brick-and-mortar restaurant, his food truck, his cooking show, his plan to leave Memphis, and his subsequent decision to stay here — and we sometimes get a little flak for it. But what can we say? Our readers eat it up. Now, almost exactly a year after we reported Sinh’s decision to stay in Memphis, and just weeks before the debut of his Poke Paradise food truck, we’re finally telling the whole saga of Sushi Jimmi, the local legend and many foodies’ favorite.
“He is my favorite sushi chef in town,” says Jordan Beatty, executive chef at the Flip Side restaurant. “The layering of the ingredients, just the quality of the ingredients, is always extremely fresh. I’ve gone to some other sushi restaurants. The rice might have been made a couple of days ago. Or some other ingredients are not too quality. He prides himself on ordering the best fish that comes into town.”
Sugar Grits executive corporate chef Lee Anna Beatty says, “Chef Jimmy Sinh is our very own Sushi Master of Memphis.”
But just who is Sushi Jimmi? Where did he come from?
Sinh has always approached sushi with a fiery passion, sometimes at the self-admitted risk of burnout. (Photos: Michael Donahue)
On Beginnings “I was born in South Vietnam,” says Sinh, one of seven children.
When he was 2-and-a-half years old, Sinh and his family moved to Los Angeles, where the majority of his family lived. When he was 6, his parents moved the family to Memphis where they pursued better job opportunities. His mother worked in a food warehouse, and his father in an automotive business.
In Sinh’s household, his mom did the cooking. “My favorite dish my mom cooked was her pho. She cooked it pretty often. Growing up, we rarely went out. She cooked all the time. And I learned how to prep and get things ready for the next day because of her,” Sinh remembers.
“My mom was always on schedule. She worked a lot. And when she came home everything was ready. She’d make four or five dishes in 30 minutes because she had so many kids to feed. And to be able to do that, you have to prepare that the day before. You come home, you cook.”
Sinh’s mother had plenty of practice preparing many meals, both for her family and for hungry customers. “In Vietnam, she was a street food vendor, selling pretty much anything she could get her hands on,” Sinh says. “She’d make some noodle soups, fried rice, banh mi. That’s how we survived. I’ve got three brothers and three sisters.”
Though the culinary craft was on display at home, cars — not cooking — were Sinh’s first passion. “My brother loved going to car lots. When I was younger he’d always take me,” Sinh says.
“I didn’t really get interested in cooking until I was 16 in high school. Freshman year. I got my first job. I never thought in life I would ever end up in a Japanese restaurant. I thought I would end up like everyone else — in a Chinese restaurant for my first job.”
He worked as a host at Benihana, and he was mesmerized by one station in particular. “I always looked over at the sushi bar every chance I got and I’d just watch. As kids, you just see some things you just like to watch.
“I asked the head chef, ‘Can I work at the sushi bar?’ And they gave me an opportunity. I worked at the sushi bar for two weeks.”
But, he says, “I was more the helper and I didn’t like that.” Sinh is creative, an attribute that expresses itself often in his menu items, and it made him want to do more than be a “helper.”
His friend Tony Do got him a job at Do’s family’s restaurant, Nagasaki Inn, which is where Sinh really sank his teeth into preparing sushi.
Do made sure Sinh learned the foundations of rolling sushi. “I started practicing and I just got better at it,” he says.
A creative cook, Sinh also did his own thing with sushi. “I’m very good at improvising. When I see pictures I come up with something of my own. I get an idea and put it with my idea.”
Nagasaki Inn co-owner Harold Do, Tony’s father, was a mentor to young Sinh. “He’s like an uncle to me. I see Mr. Harold all the time. We always hug. That man has taught me so much. That’s why I work so hard. I’ve never seen anybody work so hard as him,” Sinh says.
Sinh admired Do’s strong work ethic, and his rapport with his customers. “Being in front of him watching him cook is an honor. He works hard and he has the opportunity to still come out and show his face. That’s why customers come to see him. How else are you going to see the man cook for you and tell you jokes?”
And, he says, “I was a teenager. And Mr. Harold was the one who was really there for me to keep me off the streets. From being around the wrong crowd. He’s not just a great chef, but a great person. I loved working there. It’s one of those memories you never forget.”
Working at Nagasaki Inn was Sinh’s favorite restaurant experience. “Harold and his son, Tony, treated me like family. I’ll never forget it. I had the best teenage life working there. I learned so much. And I always tell people, ‘Nobody cooks hibachi better than Nagasaki, in my opinion.’
“We all helped each other out. We worked together as a team. At nighttime we would sit down together as a family.”
Photo: Michael Donahue
Sushi Evolution Sinh was at Nagasaki Inn for two years. “I took the sushi game a lot more seriously when I was around 21. That was when I told myself I want to do sushi for the rest of my life. I just saw the lack of knowledge around. When people eat sushi they get confused. I told myself, ‘I want to be the one that teaches people how to eat it. And not be afraid of trying it.’”
Later, Sinh learned how to do more advanced sushi. He got a job at the old Wasabi Sushi & Asian Fusion in Cordova. “That was the first time for me to do more advanced sushi. That’s where I spent a lot of time doing more of the raw stuff like the nigiri and the sashimi.”
He got the name Sushi Jimmi while working at the sushi bar. “There was a party going on. Somebody was asking for me and one of my buddies said, ‘Who are you looking for? Are you looking for Jimmy? Jimmy who? Sushi Jimmy?’ That’s how I got the name ‘Sushi Jimmi.’”
In 2014, Sinh, who helped open Red Fish restaurant locations, decided to open his own food truck. He had plenty of experience, and the market for food trucks was growing. “The food truck scene got bigger and bigger here in the Mid-South,” he says. “I was having my third kid and it motivated me to start up my own business. Me and my wife just had a long conversation about what are we going to do.”
He wondered if he should work “paycheck to paycheck” or do what he loves “and make a living at it.” Turning a passion into a profession would be hard work and would come with no shortage of challenges, but it was the most alluring option.
Sinh had a food truck built in Dallas. It made its debut in 2015 at the Mid-South Food Truck Festival, where he did “really well,” Sinh remembers.
He didn’t just sell sushi. “We had spring rolls. We had egg rolls. We had kimchi fries. We had crawfish nachos. People love the crawfish nachos. They were one of those big-hit things.”
Flush from the success of his food truck, in 2017, Sinh opened his Sushi Jimmi restaurant at 2895 Poplar. “I was trying to provide people with job opportunities.” And, he adds, “I wanted to expand my business a little more.”
But opening the restaurant wasn’t a good idea, Sinh says. “That was the worst mistake I ever made.”
With the food truck, Sinh had more time to enjoy his family, but a brick-and-mortar restaurant, and the staff it takes to run one, means a bigger commitment and more time spent at work. “When I had the restaurant, I never had a day I could enjoy,” he says.
He closed Sushi Jimmi on May 23, 2019, and he closed his food truck the next day. “Having to run the food truck and the restaurant by myself was burning me out,” Sinh admits. “If you don’t feel happy, stop. I stopped before I hated it. You don’t want to lose what you fell in love with.”
Sinh eventually went to work at other restaurants, including Saltwater Crab and at Saito 2.
In April 2021, Sinh announced he was moving to Orlando, Florida, in May. He said it would be a better opportunity for him and his family.
He also wanted to take a two-month vacation and spend time with his wife and children.
In June 2021, Sinh announced he was staying in Memphis. He said in a Flyer interview he and his wife didn’t want to move while his children were so young. The children needed “to bond a little more as a family.” They also had another child on the way.
Sinh told the Flyer, “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.”
As Sinh returns to the food truck business, he plans to go beyond the “Sushi Jimmi” moniker to expand his repertoire to poke. (Photo: Michael Donahue)
Poke Paradise The life of a chef often means hard work and long hours, and the same can be said for any small business owner. And, if the pun can be pardoned, there’s always the risk of getting burned, or burned out. That’s when Sinh came up with the idea to improve his private chef business and open his Poke Paradise food truck. He said, “I want to bring Sushi Jimmi to you. Make sure it’s something you’ll never forget.”
Sinh is happy to be “going mobile” again. Poke Paradise is “a brand you can actually franchise,” he says.
Poke is diced fresh fish, usually served with soy sauce and onion. “You can eat it spicy, and you can make it with the soy sauce base or mayo base or eat it the way it is,” Sinh explains. “It was created by fishermen with leftover fish. It was created in Hawaii. It’s a Japanese-Hawaiian dish.”
He wanted to serve something simple and healthy for people to eat. At Sinh’s Poke Paradise, people can choose from four or five different sauces.
Sinh is ready to introduce his “version of poke.”
“I’m always the person who likes the extra. I want my customers to have a little bit of an option. We’re going to have heat — mango habanero sauce. Nothing better than fresh fish and the right sauce.”
Until he gets his food truck on the road, Sinh is doing pop-ups, special orders, and catering. “Just so that we can keep ourselves busy and at the same time try new things to see what we can put on our new menu. To see if it will work on the truck once we have the truck out.” Customers can find him on Facebook (@SushiJimmi) and on Instagram (@sushi_jimmi).
Sinh “cooks with love,” says artist, actor, entrepreneur Kia Shine. “And it comes through when you’re eating.”
His sushi has “great presentation,” Shine adds. “And it’s really, really good, man. He knows what he’s doing with that sushi.”
Shine recalled a few years ago after he and members of the Heal the Hood Foundation of Memphis visited Sinh’s restaurant after delivering turkeys. “There were about 13 of us, and he was just bringing sushi dish after dish after dish after dish.”
When it came time to pay the bill, Sinh told Shine, “Nah, I got this.”
Shine continues, “He’s a giver. That speaks volumes about the individual.”
Sinh plans to one day franchise Poke Paradise brick-and-mortar restaurants in other cities. For now, he wants to be mobile with maybe one or two people to help him. “All I can tell you is if the customer keeps supporting me, better things will come,” he says. “Every dollar I make I put it right back in the business to make the business better. I’m going to take my time with this.”
“Jimmy has influenced the way we enjoy sushi in Memphis,” says Suzie “Big Sue” Purnell, iHeartMedia senior vice president of programming. “What some may see as an intimidating experience, Jimmy counters by bringing joy, pride, creativity, and fun to everything he creates. That’s a real gift and what makes him such a star.”
Barbecue sushi from Poke Paradise (Photo: Jimmy “Sushi Jimmi” Sinh)
If you’re a Memphis chef, chances are you’ve thought about creating some kind of barbecue. Or maybe you already have.
But what would be your “signature” barbecue? Even if the idea is still in your imagination?
Tamra Patterson, chef/owner of Chef Tam’s Underground Cafe: “If Chef Tam created her style of barbecue/meat, it would be barbecue catfish stuffed with a barbecue jambalaya. No matter what I cook, I always have to infuse my love of Cajun food and Cajun culture.”
Jonathan Magallanes, chef/owner of Las Tortugas: “My style would be twice-cooked for an extra texture. First, braised like carnitas with whole orange, bay leaf, lard, lime, and green chile. Then flash-fried in peanut oil. At Tops Bar-B-Q, I ask for extra dark meat on the sandwich. That bark and meat crust is divine. Then I would use a chipotle salsa. Pork is braised in a huge copper kettle. Chipotle, cilantro, lime, and onion for garnish. I like to do the whole rack of ribs this way, or shoulder. Crispy pork is the best pork, as it accentuates and concentrates the porcine flavor.”
Mario Grisanti, owner of Dino’s Grill: “I make my own barbecue sauce, but I make it sweet. I would make a beef brisket and smoked pork barbecue lasagna with layers of meats, mozzarella cheese, etc. Thin layers of each covered in barbecue sauce.”
Chip Dunham, chef/owner of Magnolia & May: “One of my favorite barbecue dishes I’ve created is our Tacos con Mempho. I smoke my own pork shoulder for 12 hours and serve it on two corn tortillas with American cheese melted between them, avocado salsa, and tobacco onions. At brunch, we simply just add a scrambled egg and it’s a breakfast taco. Another one of my favorites was our barbecue butternut squash sandwich. We roast butternut squash and toss it with some Memphis barbecue sauce. It’s a vegan sandwich that satisfies the biggest meat-eater.”
Kelly English, chef/owner of Restaurant Iris and The Second Line: “If I were to try to put my own fingerprints on what Memphis already does perfectly, I would play around with fermentations and chili peppers. I would also explore the traditions of barbacoa in ancient Central American and surrounding societies.”
Jimmy “Sushi Jimmi” Sinh, Poke Paradise food truck owner: “I made a roll with barbecue meats a long time ago. Made with Central BBQ ribs. I made them plenty of times when I hung out with my barbecue friends. I did it in my rookie years. Inside is all rib meat topped with rib meat, barbecue crab mix, thin-sliced jalapeño, dab of sriracha, furikake, green onion.”
Armando Gagliano, Ecco on Overton Park chef/owner: “My favorite meat to smoke is pork back ribs. I keep the dry rub pretty simple: half brown sugar to a quarter adobo and a quarter salt. I smoke my ribs at 250-275 degrees using post oak wood and offset smoker. … The ribs are smoked for three hours and spritzed with orange juice and sherry vinegar every 30 minutes. After three hours, I baste with a homemade barbecue sauce that includes a lot of chipotle peppers and honey. Wrap the ribs in foil and put back on the smoker for two hours. After that, remove from the smoker and let rest in the foil for another hour. They should pull completely off the bone, but not fall apart when handled.”
FreeSol, owner of Red Bones Turkey Legs at Carolina Watershed: “I am already doing it with the turkey legs. We are smoking these legs for hours till they fall of the bone. … We [also] flavor them and stuff them.”
Ryan Trimm, chef/owner of Sunrise Memphis and 117 Prime: “Beef spare ribs are a personal favorite of mine. A nice smoke with a black pepper-based rub followed by a fruit-based sweet-and-spicy barbecue sauce is my way to go.”
And even Huey’s gets in on the act. Huey’s COO Ashley Boggs Robilio says, “Recipe created by Huey’s Midtown day crew: Huey’s world famous BBQ brisket burger. Topped with coleslaw and fried jalapeños.”
Continuing to celebrate barbecue month in Memphis, more chefs share ’que ideas in next week’s Memphis Flyer.
Jimmy "Sushi Jimmi" Sinh and his new food truck (Credit: Jimmy "Sushi Jimmi" Sinh)
Jimmy “Sushi Jimmi” Sinh is ready to roll.
And not just his sushi rolls. He’s ready to get the wheels rolling on his brand new food truck.
Sinh picked up his 16-foot-truck October 11th in Arkansas. He’s planning to open it for business at his first pop-up event the weekend of October 16th, but he hasn’t decided where. He does know he’s not going to just be selling sushi.
Why pop ups? “Because we want to get a feel of the crowd,” Sinh says. “I have a really good following.”
But, he says, “We have a lot of new customers, too.”
People moving into the city search the internet looking for “the best sushi in Memphis,” he says. “‘Sushi Jimmi’ pops up.”
That was the name of his first restaurant and food truck, which he closed in 2018.
The pop ups will help him see how he wants to create his menu, Sinh says. “I think that’s the smarter move. Before we make anything official, let’s test it out first so we’ll know what will sell and what won’t. That will eliminate failure.”
Sinh, who has worked at other restaurants since he closed his restaurant, was going to move to Florida with his family early last summer, but he changed his mind and decided to stay in Memphis and start another business. “I’ve always invested in the city. Even if I wasn’t here, I was going to come back and invest in the city again. That’s always been my plan.”
His mother came up with the food truck idea. “My mom reminded me how much I love doing that. And she told me, ‘Why don’t you go back to food trucking again?’ She knew I was very happy when I was food trucking. She knew I was one of those people who loves a journey. Every day I’m in a food truck I’m on a different route every day. Sometimes I’m in a different state. The whole thing about a food truck is every day you’re somewhere new. You don’t stay in one spot. It doesn’t burn you out.
“I bought an actual food box truck and I was working on it, but I changed my mind. Because the one question I asked myself when I thought about doing another food truck was, ‘What can you do better than you did on your last journey with a food truck?’ I told myself I don’t want to do another ‘hot side,’ which is is a deep fryer, flat top, and char grilling.”
He didn’t want to “worry about my second person or third person in line. Depending on staffing.”
This time out, Sinh decided to go “all refrigeration and warmers,” which means “mainly just refrigeration and air fryers. I’m cooking a lot of things in a different way.”
He wants no more ventilation, propane, or deep fryer problems. “We just want to take that headache and chunk it out the window.”
Sinh researched and found a company in Arkansas, where he bought his new food truck. “I designed it and I told them what I wanted in there.”
The truck is in Sinh’s red-and-black signature colors. “Same color as Sushi Jimmi food truck in 2015.”
He learned a lot from his last food trucking experience. “Being a food trucker is not just cooking food. There are a lot of things you have to learn. You’ve got to maintain your truck. Give yourself a pretty good blueprint of your truck and trailer to make things easier for you.”
That means putting everything in a convenient spot. “Where you can twist and turn and reach for things no further than three-feet away.”
Sinh now has a building, which will be his headquarters and houses his commercial kitchen. “Where I can park my food truck, do food prepping, and store equipment. ‘Cause I do private cheffing and catering.”
He will be able to cook everything at the headquarters and then load up his truck. “I roll the majority of my sushi and have all my other food ready, which means when my customers come up to order, it’s right there. They let us know what they want, we bag it up, and hand it to them.”
His pop ups will feature “a small menu” that will appeal to everybody, but it also will let him know “which items stay on the menu and which don’t.”
Of course, they will feature sushi. “We will always have sushi. And then we’re going to bring in a little bit of ‘poke’ — fish and soy sauce pretty much. It’s a special type of soy sauce.”
They also will do kimchi fries, “which everybody tells me they miss. Crawfish nachos. We’re going to have some sashimi, nigiri. It’s going to be a very good selection. We’re also going to give customers a combination family meal where you can kind of pick and choose. You come up to the food truck, ‘Hey, I want the nigiri combo, the sashimi combo, the three-roll combo.’”
And, he says, “Tell us what you want and it’s right there.”
His goal is to “keep it very simple.”
Sinh hopes to take the truck on the road and “go to different food truck fests, go out of town to different cities, and collaborate with other people. I’m down for everything and anything. Private dinners. I can fly out or drive the food truck.”
Asked how he feels about his new venture, Sinh says, “I’m actually really stoked.”
He’s surprised he’s going to be back with his own business this soon. “I guess great things happen to those who wait. I learned that a lot after I shut down the business. Second chance. I’m just ready to start over. And we all learn how to do things better the second time around. I just want to tell everybody that’s been supporting me for the past year, ‘thank you.’”
Sinh will hold pop ups until January. “That will be our debut date. Our first day out officially ready to roll.”
And, he says, “That’s when we have our schedule out and we’re ready to hit locations.”
That’s also when he will reveal the name of his new business, which will not be “Sushi Jimmi,” Sinh says. “Sushi Jimmi is me. It’s a person. It’s a brand, but it’s a person. Sushi Jimmi is what I’ve been called for years. But this time when we come out with a brand, I don’t want to name it after me. I want an actual brand. Something we can use for the long term.
“I don’t want anything to be named after me anymore. I’ve been out there for years and everybody knows who I am. I’m Sushi Jimmi. I want them to know more about the product this time.”
To find out where Sinh’s food truck pop ups will be, follow him on his “Sushi Jimmi” Facebook and Instagram pages.
In the first in a sort of Reddit grab bag this week, Memphis user Jwiley92 shared this infographic (from the Centers for Disease Control) to show which populations in Shelby County were the most hesitant to get a COVID-19 vaccination.
Sushi Jimmi Redux
MEMernet citizens had thoughts about our story last week announcing Sushi Jimmi would leave Memphis.
“Haven’t we heard this story like five times before?” asked CaptainInane-O on Reddit.
On Twitter, @ViewFromBoxSeat wondered, “Anybody seen an update on Sushi Jimmi? It’s been over 24 hours since the last article about him.”
“Booty Clap Parking Pass”
No one on the Memphis subreddit could quite explain just what was going on with this photo captured at Overton Park and posted by benefit_of_mrkite.
User baabahope got closest, maybe, noting “that’s a booty clap parking pass.” Other users agreed, though, that whatever was going on was Memphis AF.
Jimmy “Sushi Jimmi” Sinh is starring in his own cooking show, Jimmi Sinh, on YouTube.
Sinh made sushi on the first episode, which aired January 18th, but he plans to prepare all types of cuisine.
“What I’m showing people is what I do every day,” Sinh says. “How I do it. And then I can help people who are Sushi Jimmi fans and also help people who want to learn to become a chef. Everything I teach is done by a chef’s knowledge base.”
For the past six years, people have asked Sinh, who is a cook at Saito 2 in Arlington, to do an online cooking show, he says. “I was going to do this a long time ago but I just never had the time. I was requested from a lot of my customers to do classes.”
He usually just taught people who cook professionally. This is the first time he is teaching home cooks. But, Sinh says, “For me to be able to train someone, they have to have a passion for it, because if they don’t, it’s a waste of my time. I have such a huge passion for it, it has to be someone who has the same type of passion.
“I train chefs because I love for another person to do what I do. If I do it virtually, you have a choice to hit the ‘pause’ button or ‘play’ buttons. That’s up to you.”
Someone watching his videos may decide to “become another chef Jimmy Sinh. The skills I can teach you, you can go out and find yourself a chef position job and maybe open your own restaurant one day. That’s the kind of skills I’m teaching people.
“Everyone wants to put on a chef coat, but not everybody knows what to do with the chef coat. I want to put out an inspiration for all the younger people and make sure they do want to become a chef — why you want to become a chef (and) what it takes to become a chef.”
Sinh plans to feature new episodes about twice a week. “It’s everything that I ever cooked. It’s going to be out there. And if any one of my customers requests me to do something, I’ll do it. ‘We want you to cook some Vietnamese food.’ OK. Let’s make a Vietnamese food episode.”
Jimmy ‘Sushi Jimmi’ Sinh
And, he says, “I want people to know my where my culinary background is, but I want to do some grilling techniques to show people how I marinate my meat. What I do for my private parties.”
Sinh also will show viewers “the right place to go” for the ingredients for the dishes he’s making. “All of the stuff I’ll be teaching you can find locally at the store or you can order online.”
His recipes aren’t secret. “People say, ‘Oh, man. You’re giving out your secret recipes.’ You cannot ever hold your recipes for the rest of your life. I want to be the person who shared great food with everyone.”
Currently, Sinh’s show is being filmed at the restaurant. But he also plans to do some filming at home and at other locations. “I’m going to be using my sister’s backyard. I’m going to set up a mobile kitchen in the backyard. I’m going to show people how to do outdoor grilling.”
He’d eventually like to do some traveling so he can show restaurant techniques from other restaurants around the country.
As for being on camera, Sinh is more than ready for his closeup. “I’m still learning. I’m what you call an amateur.” But, he says, “I’m very comfortable around a camera.”
And to make himself feel comfortable on camera, Sinh wears chef pants and a black T-shirt — his usual kitchen attire. “We work around all kinds of conditions. The more comfortable you are, the better your food tastes.”
Jimmy ‘Sushi Jimmi’ Sinh at Saito 2 Hibachi & Sushi
If you’re wondering where Sushi Jimmi is these days, look in Lakeland. Jimmy “Sushi Jimmi” Sinh now is working at the new Saito 2 Hibachi & Sushi restaurant.
Sinh, who says things didn’t work out at J. T. Fusion, the now defunct restaurant inside La Hacienda in Cordova, happened upon the second location of Saito while driving around Lakeland. “I saw some lights inside. I told myself, ‘Hey, look, I need a job,’” Sinh says. “I just went in there the old school way, which is walk in and ask for a job. And they told me, ‘We are hiring. When can you start?’”
They hired him as a sushi chef. “They were impressed with my work. At first they didn’t know who I was.”
His boss then discovered he was the former owner of the popular Sushi Jimmi’s restaurant, which was on Poplar near the viaduct, Sinh says.
Sinh is impressed with the restaurant. “It was home to me when I came into work. That kind of vibe reminded me of how we operated at Sushi Jimmi. Treat people well. Whatever needs to be done, we all chip in and we do it together.”
Saito 2, which also has another location, Saito Japanese Hibachi & Sushi at 6600 Stage Road, also features hibachi and sushi, but, Sinh says, “Their rolls are different from mine ‘cause the style is different. They also allow me to make my customers any special they like.”
He describes the decor as “very modern.”
Saito 2 Hibachi & Sushi
Saito 2 Hibachi & Sushi
The new Saito, which currently is holding soft openings, is slated to officially open later in December, Sinh says. “I don’t want to work just anywhere. I want to work where I’m going to be happy. I don’t want to end up leaving in a few months. I wasn’t planning for J. T. Fusion to go down that fast.
“I know people look at me: ‘He’s going this place. He’s going that place.’ To me, if you’re not happy where you work, then you shouldn’t be working there. Of course, that’s a no-brainer question. If you’re not happy where you are, go find a place that will make you feel happy.
“I took my time. I came in the right place when I came in here.”
Saito 2 Hibachi & Sushi is at 9775 Hwy. 64, Arlington, Tennessee; (901) 590-2561.
Jimmy “Sushi Jimmi” Sinh and Temoor Sarwar will open JT Fusion on Wednesday, October 7th.
Diners will be able to get everything from a sushi taco to a $250 sushi boat for a group of 10 at the restaurant, which is part of the Cordova location of La Hacienda Mexican restaurant owned by Sarwar and his family. JT Fusion will become its own restaurant when it moves to a brick-and-mortar building in 2021.
The “J” stands for “Jimmy” and the “T” stands for “Temoor.” They’re 50-50 partners in the new endeavor. “That’s why it’s fusion,” Sinh says. “It’s both of us.”
And, he says, “La Hacienda has been in business since 1996. They’re not going anywhere. JT Fusion is a totally separate concept.”
Temoor Sarwar and Jimmy ‘Sushi Jimmi’ Sinh
JT Fusion “is a brand we want to introduce to Memphis. More of an upscale Asian restaurant. Everything we order is shipped overnight. We cannot get it in Memphis. Even our wasabi. If you eat the sushi boat, then you’re going to get real wasabi.”
Those boats will include bluefin tuna and “all your exclusive fish.” They’ll sell for between $150 and $250, depending on the type of fish and how many it will serve, Sinh says. “It’s not a cheap boat. It’s high-quality fish.”
“We’re just doing things we feel like are really good,” Sarwar says. “Our Pork Belly Philly concept came from the Philly sandwich, but we’re doing it with pork belly. It’s kind of like a chunky bacon. It’s really good.
“And that’s the kind of stuff I’m excited about. A lot of times chefs or cooks get stuck in cooking one style of food because that’s what’s expected of them.”
JT Fusion has “no rules” in the kitchen, Sarwar says. “We can pick up and do whatever we want with the food and menu. We don’t have to be classical. We don’t have to be regionally correct to any style or any kind of food.”
Don’t rock the sushi boat.
They will serve what they feel “tastes great,” he says.
The menu, which also will include sushi, will feature Sinh’s take on the sushi taco. “Mine is not fried at all,” Sinh says. “It’s more of a healthier choice. It’s just wrapped in seaweed. It has that crunch because of the seaweed, and it has the rice that sticks it together. And the flavors, you get it in the spicy tuna, spicy crawfish, spicy crab. You can get it pretty much stuffed with anything. Also, it has a little bit of pico de gallo and tobiko — fish eggs.”
Like their food, the drinks at JT Fusion also will be fusion. They’ll mix spirits from different countries, Sarwar says. They fuse Italy with Japan in a cocktail made with limoncello and sake.
The drink list will be “definitely different from anywhere else,” Sinh says. The Ninja, made with sake, peach Smirnoff vodka, apple Cîroc vodka, and cranberry juice, is served in a big fish bowl. You can drink it by yourself or share it with a second person. I put dry ice in it. That makes it cooler.”
For now, JT Fusion will be a section of about six tables at La Hacienda, Sinh says. “We’re just getting a small part of the restaurant to serve our food … a small part of the kitchen. We’re looking for a place of our own right now. I would say 2021 we’re going to open it. It will be a brand-new year. Everything is going to be good again. And we want to introduce it to Memphis the right way. That way, we can come out with a new year, a new restaurant, and serve you guys better.”
Since JT Fusion now has a limited number of tables, customers must make a reservation to eat there.
“I feel like restaurants have gone away from the experience,” Sarwar says. “Everything is so uptight. We want people to have fun.
“We’re trying to give people an experience. Trying to give people our energy. Jimmy and I are super excited about this.”
JT Fusion is at La Hacienda, 1760 N. Germantown Pkwy. in Cordova; (901) 624-2020.
“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.
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.
Michael Donahue 
Michael Donahue 