The return of Kiyoji, part 2

MOSES LAKE - Manager/cook Kiyoji Miyamoto was eating dinner with his daughter when the Moses Lake Police called to tell him his restaurant was on fire.

Miyamoto thought they were joking. He remembered the call on Sept. 23. He said it was after he prepared a fund-raising dinner for Big Bend Community College.

"After we shut everything down, about an hour later, the fire started," he said. "But I had a positive attitude. The worst situation, we had to turn around to the best conditions."

Owner Dwane Lind had just returned from a week long trip when he got the same call about the fire, which was attributed to a faulty electrical appliance.

"When we looked at it, the fire department's saying, 'It's a lot of smoke damage, it's not a lot of fire damage,' but the smoke damage, once we got in here and saw how extensive it was, the city would not let us replace," Lind recalled. "We had to completely gut it."

Today the restaurant, Tsunami Sushi, reopens in its location at 109 W. Third Ave., after complete renovations and repair.

"We've done the final things for the cleanup, to decoration, one more final fire inspection," Miyamoto said Monday morning. "Everything else is done, we're putting the freight out, the produce and seafood and everything away. This afternoon or evening, I'll be doing preparation for my side, to whatever has to be chopped up."

The concept of the restaurant is not much different, Miyamoto said, but the kitchen space is larger and there is a counter for five people to sit which has been added. The restrooms are now handicapped-accessible. A waiting area has been added. The sushi bar area has two coolers now and has been elevated for customers to watch the chef. The space has been expanded to add 40 more seats, for a total seating capacity of more than 90 people.

"It was a nightmare to have to do everything from the table booths, everything," Miyamoto said. "(The damage) went all the way to the studs. I have confidence we don't have to worry about any more problems."

"Obviously it was probably the most negative thing that could probably ever happen to the restaurant, but put your head down, go forward and try to find good in it," Lind said.

Miyamoto said he was also concerned for the restaurant's 20 employees. The initial thought was that the restaurant would reopen in a couple of months, but now, four months later, he said all 20 have returned, in addition to five new employees brought on board.

One of the new employees is another Japan-born chef from Seattle, starting next week, which will provide Miyamoto the opportunity to reduce his hours from 100 a week to take it easy and return to teaching shorinjikempo self-defense classes twice a week. Miyamoto taught the classes to Moses Lake Police from 1973 to 1975.

"There's going to be maybe a lot of Japanese language going back and forth, but it's going to be real Japanese style," Miyamoto said of the restaurant. "Better than before."

A resident of Moses Lake for 32 years, he also owned his own restaurant for 22 years. Tsunami Sushi opened in July.

Lind, a sushi lover, said he had been talking with co-owner Leah Adkins about opening a sushi restaurant in Moses Lake for years.

"One day I said it to the wrong person, because (Miyamoto) and I hooked up the next day," Lind said with a laugh. "It just led into a friendship that led into a business. If we're going to do it, let's hurry up and do it. It was in April I met Kiyoji, and by July we opened. When we first opened in July, I never dreamed we'd be as busy as we were. And I'm sure now, with the increased occupancy load, it's going to be busier yet."

Many sushi restaurants do not serve traditional sushi, Lind said.

"Most sushi places you go to are trying to take sushi and turn them into an American dish," Lind explained. "Which obviously would sell, because you're in America, but the longer you eat sushi, (traditional sushi) is more to what you want to go to."

Lind believes the renovated restaurant will be better and more user-friendly. Interest in the restaurant has been high, he added, with people stopping by every day to inquire about when the reopening would happen.

"Because of the city codes making everything be torn down and rebuilt, it's a new restaurant," he said. "It's an old shell, but you've got a completely new restaurant."

Maybe so, but Miyamoto is expecting a lot of old faces.

"We appreciate people have been patient and still showing the interest in Tsunami Sushi," he said. "How nice to have a real following of customers. A lot of them are friends. It's hard to come by. Everything is clean and fresh, as much as we can … We are ready. I mean, we are ready to open."

The restaurant is open Monday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.

For more information, call 509-764-2040.