Updates

Uh one thing you all might find interesting is how busy the restaurant has been lately.. Is the crappy economy and 4 dollar gas having an effect on sales!? The answer is.. YES! I think. Yes lately things have slowed down which really sux. On our busiest days, Friday and Saturday where we normally get well over 400 customers a night, lately we have had under 400! That is distressing cause those 2 days are like our money makers. Also lunch has been slowing as well. Our lunch numbers are probably down like 17-20%? Maybe its cause its finals season?? We do have a few random busy weekdays which have helped off set the slowing weekends but still i would say on average we're down from a couple months ago.

Oh yes its been hot here lately but i dont thing the restaurant has become unbearable.. yet.. i mean its definitely warn inside. The ACs are crankin! At some point ill try and let you all know how much our electric bill is..heh Anyways im pretty sure its not the tempurature of the restaurant that has been hurting sales..

Sagging sales arent the only new things that have been going on lately..uh Recently I've been training to be a sushi chef! Thats actually pretty fun! Heres a couple rolls i made.. what do you guys think?


Err dang that cutting board looks dirty up close!! Ignore that please.. i swear i scrubbed that before i used it. This what we call a beginner sushi. Its half California roll and half Charleston roll.. about as non japanese as you can get. Perfect for the ignorant southerner who is afraid of anything un american.. The cali roll side is avocado and fake crab and the Charleston roll is pre cooked shirmp, cucumber, mayo and lettuce. No raw fish in the beginner sushi!( guess this means this roll is good for me too since i dont like raw fish!)


Here it is cut. When you start training to become a sushi chef you always start out making easy rolls. Things like the california roll, or the crunch roll shown below. This helps you get good at actually rolling and cutting sushi. Rolling and cutting are tough!! Especially cutting! JEeez you guys should have seen some of the first rolls i made.. gaaw if you even want to call them rolls.. They were like blobs of rice with crab mushed inside.. heh I really struggled at first and felt like i was letting my japanese ancestors down. I could just hear them saying " Nani!? You carr diss sushi!? BAKKA! You are a discrase! You are NOT AH JAPANESE!" Many times i felt like taking the sushi knife and disembowling myself...but i didnt.. I just kept at it.. and one day.. i dunno it just kinda clicked. The only thing i can compare learning how to make sushi to is... learning how to drift. You just have to do it to really get a feel for whats going on. Its really hard to just make perfect sushi from watching someone..




Our crunch roll is very simple.. just shrimp tempura and some hot sauce. I would say things that make for a good sushi is not too much rice, a nice tight roll(so it dont fall apart) and evenly sized pieces that are cut straight. Thats all the stuff that i strive for in my rolls. Now whether i achieve that or not when i make sushi is another thing.. Im still a wee bit inconsistent and apparently im slow. I feel like i got the basic rolls down but i still have a ways to go. The last things you learn are nigiri and sashimi.. I havent started learning either of those yet.




Since weve taken over the restaurant weve been trying to make improvements here and there.. Trying to de ghetto things a bit if you will... Here is one of our latest de ghettoing actions.. New Menus!!!(menu on the left is new if you didnt realize) Dont they look beautiful!?? JEez yes we were actually handing the one on the right to people to order from! WTF! Classy huh? Man if you think it looks nasty on the outside you should have seen the inside! I hope you like soy sauce stains.. Oh we also raised prices too in the new menu.. On average everything went up about 95 cents.. inflation sux! You know what else sux??.. Apparently our beautiful new menus only have about 8 months before they end up like our old menus.. DOH! Uh weve done some other things to improve the place but i dont have pics of them yet.. ill show you next post..

Things are continuing to move at the Beaufort place.. We finally got our plans finished from the architect today so we can apply for a building permit.. Hey he was only 2 months late finishing those! Sweet!



Uh while we've been waiting for the architect ive been building a mock up of the restaurant based off the drawings we had to try and help us come up with ideas for the interior.. Here's what i got so far.. What do you guys think??





NO SERIOUSLY!! i need input! Im kinda running out of ideas.. im just making this up from some pics ive downloaded from various sushi restaurants ive found online and from another smaller Masato restaurant.

I got more pics here
http://sokasaki.albumpost.com/album35?page=4
http://sokasaki.albumpost.com/album35?page=5

So what do you guys think?? Unfortunately no textures or lighting.. please use your imaginations! Sorry my modeling skillz are so weak!

Oh the sign is crap and is just a place holder.. i just wanted something that i could shine lights on to illustrate an idea i had for lighting up the side of our building.... If people have ideas for signs that would be great too.. unfortunately the city of Beaufort has lots of restrictions on what we can do with our actual sign.. thats why i was thinking maybe if we lit up our building in a cool way we could stand out more and still comply with the gay laws..

If anyone cares here's a couple random things about where i live.. So before mankind developed the area i currently live in... it was like a freaking rain forest.. actually i think most of the south is(was) like rain forest.. Its actually very pretty when its not being clear cut. My buddies house actually has a small patch of forest behind his house between him and the Home Depot... While im pretty sure he doesnt really appreciate it, i like to sit outside some times and just kinda chill in his small back yard where there's a surprising amount of err wild life. My current favorite critters are... THE LEETALL LEEZARDS!

THeres a ton of these little doods! I love cameleons.. I used to have some when i was younger..but they all died.. cause we didnt feed them enough..

Another interesting thing about living here is there's an army airfield like right next to us.. REAlly like 2 miles away.. so all day its like being in a warzone with choppers and cargo planes flying around constantly..

I actually kinda like this.. its cool seeing and hearing this stuff. chuchuchUCHUCHUCHU hu chuhu huhu (thats the sound of an apache flying over..)

Well thats all i got for now.. I hope everying one is doing well!

Oh yeah.. CAN SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME

W

T

F

This is!??

THIS SUCKER WAS HUGE!!

!!!REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAA!! "AHHH GET IT OFF AAAHH!! gUUAAGGHh!!"

!!!REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAA!!