35 Years At Sagami


Sagami
Rick Nichols profiles Shigeru Fukuyoshi, the man behind Sagami, South Jersey’s premier sushi destination for more than 35 years.

Yet here stands Fukuyoshi, his Japanese restaurant so novel in 1974 that it was mistaken for Chinese. And here he remains, still dealing with the same two Japanese fish purveyors – one in Pennsylvania, one in New York.

He takes his post at the right end of the varnished sushi bar, obsessively washing down his cases, wringing his washcloth. There is an aspect of the actor Harry Dean Stanton about him, gaunt and world-weary: “I am not the chef,” he demurs, a nod to the three sushi chefs at work down the bar.

But soon he is drawing his blade across the salmon – and yellowtail and flounder – for one more bowl of chirashi, a bouquet of raw slices of fish over vinegar-rice and seaweed, set off with a red dollop of fish roe.

A fresh idea stays that way [Philadelphia Inquirer]