It's after 9 a.m. on a Monday, and Chaesu Kim is busy making sure her restaurant, Sushi Garden, is prepared to receive customers at its newest location at Foothills Mall.
In the kitchen and behind the long sushi bar, workers slice vegetables and raw fish in anticipation of the restaurant's 11 a.m. opening.
"There's a lot to do before we open," said Kim, who also goes by Sue.
She strolled over to the buffet, where employee Francisco Aguilar prepared the crab, shrimp and tuna rolls that would be offered later. He transferred to the new Northwest Side location from Kim's other Sushi Garden in Midtown.
"I like working here better because we're at the mall," he said.
Kim walks back and forth, checking on things in her family's second restaurant, which opened in mid-December near the food court entrance on the west side of the mall.
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"Tucson's growing so fast, we needed one on the Northwest Side," she said of the restaurant.
Kim and her family opened their first Sushi Garden in 1991. Many of their regular customers live on the Northwest Side, and Kim said they kept suggesting that she open another restaurant in the area.
"I don't think they liked driving that far," she said, smiling.
The new restaurant is roomier than its counterpart, Kim noted, but the food is similar.
Sushi Garden's signature all-you-can-eat buffet and sushi deals, $8.95 and $19.95, respectively, also are offered at the mall location.
The new restaurant has a bar and offers happy-hour specials on the weekends.
The restaurants truly are family affairs.
Kim and her son, Chun Young Kim, split their time between the two restaurants. Chun Young Kim's wife, Hee Jung Kim, and his sister, Connie Lee, also help out. The family matriarch and her husband, Hyong Kyu Kim, are from Korea. Before they opened their first Sushi Garden, Chaesu Kim operated a restaurant in Nogales, where she sold hamburgers and Korean and Mexican food.
At the family's first Sushi Garden, the couple began offering Korean and Japanese fare. At the Foothills Mall restaurant, Chaesu Kim said, she offers fewer Korean dishes.
Northwest Side residents are being receptive, she said.
"As a new restaurant, we're doing well," she noted.
Her son added that the new location's happy hour has had a good response.
"It's a pretty good crowd on Friday and Saturday," he said.
The lowdown
The business: Sushi Garden
Address: 7401 N. La Cholla Blvd.
Hours: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays; 11 a.m. to midnight Fridays and Saturdays. Happy hour runs from 10 p.m. to midnight Fridays and Saturdays.
Phone: 877-8744
