Happy Holidays

It's that time of year again. 2011 has passed by in a whirlwind yet we still have 2 weeks left to enjoy before the new year - new beginnings, new expectations, new goals and new dreams. The restaurant is still open and we're trying to advertise more to bring in customers. Some days the restaurant is really busy and other days, not at all. We closed the store for Thanksgiving but that one day was so busy cooking and going to temple, it didn't even feel like a day off. We're going to close for Christmas too for a few days so that will be - I hope - a nice break.

What I really want is to go on a roadtrip. A long motorcycle roadtrip. I miss riding my bike.

Happy Feet 2

There's a new movie coming out soon called Happy Feet 2. While at work, there were some penguins promoting the movie. We got them to come over and take a pic with us and with Sushi Shack.

Grand Opening

November 12th, 2011

We had our official Grand Opening ceremony. The Chamber of Commerce as well as a city councilman showed up to show their support and we had a ribbon cutting ceremony. We've been going on 6 weeks and are starting to get regular customers, which is quite nice. We've been advertising in various magazines, newspapers and even grocery store receipts! Of course, social media such as Facebook and Twitter have brought in a few people also.



Dad, Me, Mom, Councilman Ron, Chamber of Commerce President Wanda



Ribbon cutting ceremony - my parents are in the front. My mom came down for a few weeks to help out in the restaurant.





Several people from the community and Chamber of Commerce members also showed up to support us.



Sushi Shack, located in Gardena, CA

 It's been a long time coming but my dream of owning/ operating my own restaurant has finally come. My Mother came over to help out for a few weeks in the restaurant. My Father is the Sushi Chef and I am in the back cooking the hot foods. This definately could not have been done without my parents support and with the help of my best friend.

1 week down

Sushi Shack has been open for going on 9 days now. So far, the going is alright and just as expected.

This our ad for a local coupon book that came out this month.  

Cherry blossom roll

Laura roll

Manila clams with lavosh

Sashimi Deluxe special

Baby octopus appetizer



Monster X roll - this is our challenge roll. 5# roll to be eaten in 1 hour or less.



Tiger roll

It's been crazy trying to figure out when it's going to be busy. Some days we think it'll be slow then right before closing a starving rush of people will come in, or it will be steady all day, or other times, it's completely slow all day.

Our opening day Friday, September 30th was extremely busy. A lot of friends stopped by to eat and we were so packed there were people waiting in line out the door. We gave away a lot of free food as tasters that night. We were literally 2 hours behind in tickets. So that weekend we hired 2 people - one sushi helper and one kitchen helper.

We're still playing with the menu and perfecting it before the Grand Opening, which is still at an undetermined date. But I think it will be in November.

Sushi Shack

It's been a grueling past few months. Actually, I'd like to say it was grueling but it wasn't. It was more of a sit, hurry up then wait type thing. We've come extremely close to not opening at all due to having to spend more than we planned. We invested too much to back out and not much left to keep going forward, which left us anxious and losing hope. Luckily, this past week we finally passed our plan check, got all the appropriate stamps, signatures and approvals. Thank Buddha and lots of prayers!

Our opening is planned for Friday, September 30, 2011! We are truly looking forward to this date. When I say we, most of you already know I hired my Father as my Sushi Chef and are opening this venture together. Yes, we are both Sushi Chefs but I figured I can do all the hot food cooking in the back and have him be in the front. This will be really neat since I also hired my best friend as my waitstaff. We haven't worked together in quite a while - actually I haven't seen her in a while so it will be good to catch up.




Our sign on the building. We are located in a strip mall in a large plaza. Hey, out here in SoCal most all the best sushi places are in strip malls.

It's a good thing I know a variety of people! I hired several friends of mine - for the store website and designing the store logo, artwork, consulting, blueprints, etc. And some friends even volunteered to come help me out and let me borrow their tools - ladders, paint brushes/ rollers, wrenches, etc. What a great bunch of friends! 

This 3 panel sakura (cherry) tree artwork is actually purchased from an out of state artist. I really liked his work but the original was a 4 panel piece. When I called him, he was extremely nice and willing to convert his painting into a 3 panel show piece.



Here is where the sushi-making will be happening!



Kintaro and the Koi is a popular Japanese folk hero, based on a real person. He is linked to the annual celebration of Boy's Day, which celebrates their strength and health.

 So if any of you are in the area, please stop by! We've also got delivery and take-out. Sushi Shack is located at 1546 W. Redondo Beach Blvd, Gardena, CA 90247.

Angeles Crest Highway

Angeles Crest Highway has been closed for a while so when I heard the news that it re-opened, I was estatic! I finally had the chance to go last Sunday - 59 miles of scenic beauty! It was amazing - some of the areas were still dark and charred from the fire, some parts of the road were stained with mud from the mudslides and some parts of the road were brand new. The whole drive, I kept thinking it looked familiar - and it look almost like driving through Yellowstone when I went there a few years back. It was mountains, trees, charred trees and awesome views. The highest part was about 7,300 ft above sea level - at least that's what the sign said.

Me in Angeles Crest - great view!



Dad overlooking Angeles Crest



It was an all day drive - with all the curves and slow speeds, the entire loop took about 6 hours.

WCBC 1st Annual Charity Poker Ride

Group pic of WCBC!

Today was the first annual West Coast Biker Chick Charity Event supporting the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Whew! Long title, eh? It was a poker ride that raised over $1,000 for our charity. There were awesome prizes for the worst and best poker hand as well as a live band, free food, karaoke, raffles and lots of free stuff. We even had a blood donation truck come over and a few vendors. I thought there would be a larger turnout but our event was the same day as another fundraiser, which drew a very large crowd. On the other hand, both clubs - our sister club ECBC, East and West Coast Biker Chicks had the Leukemia charity event the same day and same time, but opposite coasts. Kinda cool.

This was my first official day off where I didn't go to work all day! 5 weeks of working everyday 10-16 hour days. So even though I didn't get to sleep in, it was a great day and I got to ride my bike, saw some friends I hadn't seen in a while and even won a few items in the raffle.



Director and Asst Director of WCBC - Carrie and I

  The event took place at the Anaheim-Fullerton Harley-Davidson store. It was such a great day out - nice and sunny... and even sunburn! Since I'm the assistant director of WCBC, I thought it mandatory that I attend our biggest charity event of the year. We had all our members show up, help out and everyone did such a fantiastic job!

Sushi Shack - painting complete

It's been an on-going process of cleaning since we got the place last month. We've been putting in between 10-12 hours daily for 3 weeks straight now. Cleaning, cleaning, cleaning. All the equipment was caked with a blend of grease, old oil and dust which makes for lots of scrubbing. Couple friends of mine have volunteered to help clean and paint! What a godsend! They've put in over 80 hours helping out.


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This is the hallway "before" pic.



I also wanted a mop/ broom closet. I had 3 storage closets side by side - 3 separate doors but all connected. My friend Wendy, built me a wall so my cleaning chemicals won't be stored with the paper/ plastic products. I think she did a fantastic job! Without knowing it was an open space prior, you would never guess it was just built. And she painted the inside so every thing matches and is a very clean looking white color.



Wendy in the process of building a wall.



Wall installed and in the process of being painted white.




Sushi bar and far wall - painting complete.



Sushi bar wall painting complete.

Dining side wall - painting complete.

Hallway doors for office, restrooms and storage - my friends Stacy and Wendy did all the restaurant painting and did a great job!

Wendy painting the ceiling and back wall.

Painting complete.

 The restaurant colors before were green, yellow and white walls. I liked the colors and thought it contemporary but wanted my restaurant to be more cozy and a bit on the dark side. The colors I chose were brown. Two different tones - a dark cocoa and a lighter tan to offset the darkness. All the green and white walls were replaced with dark. The yellow walls were replaced with the lighter tan. Dad wasn't much of a fan of my color choices but I was quite insistent so of course, I won. And to be truthful, I think it looks even better than I imagined.

We left the ceiling the same color. That task would have been very difficult and luckily, there was a wood border to help separate the colors. We kept the original light fixtures which helps with the contemporary/ modern look I'm trying to maintain.  

The photos will be changed out by the end of the month. We also kept all seating and tables.

One of the "before" photos but the yellow wall portion has already been painted the light tan.

The hallway "after" photo. I wanted to keep the colors but invert them making the larger portion tan. Since it is a small enclosed space I thought the lighter color would help not make it so cave-like. I don't want to scare the customers from utilizing the restroom! The storage doors, I kept the tan color to help blend in. I was thinking 9 doors in one hallway can be alittle intimidating and I didn't want customers getting frustrated by not being able to locate the restroom facilities.  

In the hallway, my plans are to have a community bulletin board. Here, people can post their charity fundraisers, business cards, etc. That board will be between the 1st and 2nd door in the photo above. Then the larger wall between the 2nd and 3rd door will be my "Wall of Honor" and "Wall of Humiliation" where it will also be a bulletin board but with photos of customers in their success or failure in the sushi eating contest. Yes, I will be having a sushi roll contest so for all you local fans, bring your empty belly and prepare to be stuffed!

So finally the painting is complete. Dad and I patched up all the holes in the walls and painted the kitchen. It's now a very bright and clean looking white color. The refrigerators and freezer is clean - although we are having some difficulty in maintaining the temperatures so we're monitoring them and hoping it will be an easy fix. Most of the pots and pans are clean as with the storage racks. There's only a few more things to clean before we can start shopping for our dishware, then onto our food products. The place is really shaping up!

Sushi Shack

I have the greatest news! This project I've been working on has finally come to fruitation... I guess, most of you know I've been wanting to open my own restaurant for some time now. I signed the paperwork last week and just received the keys today!

There's a lot of work to be done but most of the place is furnished/ built out - lucky me! So all I've got to do is scrub all the equipment clean and purchase some minimal equipment. This place went out of business 3 months ago and the previous tenants left it a huge mess.

This will be the sushi bar area.

Dining area

Sushi bar

Need to start scrubbing!

I own a huge thanks to my parents since they have helped in making my dream come true. I learned my lesson with the last restaurant in teaming up in a partnership, which proved to be a huge disaster. My Father is even coming out to be my Sushi Chef, and help start up the place.

Located in Gardena, California I'm naming the place Sushi Shack and I'm hoping to open by mid/ end of July. My best friend is helping me by becoming my Front of House Manager in charge of waitstaff and I will be in the back on the hot stoves cooking up everyone's meal.

I'm really looking forward to this new adventure! I'll post more pics once we've cleaned up the place. I'm hoping to do some cosmetic improvements - paint and some artwork. It'll be a minimal store transformation. The permits to open are what take the longest and most have already been filed.

65th Annual Greenhorn hosted by the Pasadena MC

Roadtrip!!!

Yes, it's been quite some time since I've blogged last. There just hasn't been much news. Being a square is quite boring! Living for the weekend then being disappointed when the motorcycle ride cancels due to the rain. I've thought about moving and returning to the trail but there is just something that keeps me grounded here in LA... the friends that I've made here are great! Having an awesome support system is what I missed when traveling and now that I have it here, it makes moving difficult. So here I am chugging away with a boring stationary life with an occassional fabulous roadtrip. Anyway, let me continue on my story...

(A week before the ride, I had the brilliant idea of "updating" my traveling style with a GPS system and music. I had been using a tank map bag but soon realized I had been outdated. A friend of mine helped me with the electrical and install my car GPS on my bike, which of course is removeable. The speakers didn't arrive in time for her to help me so she talked me through it on the phone. My handlebars ran out of space so I velcro'd the music applifier to my tank. This way it could be removeable. The speakers are bolted in place on the handlebars.)

The Pasadena Motorcycle Club (PMC) is the oldest motorcycle club in California. Every year they host a top secret ride and call it the Greenhorn. This year was the 65th annual event. What they do is advertise the Greenhorn as the "mutha" of all rides - which is an arduous 2 day ride to who knows where. They tell you the mid-point and recommend a hotel but everything else is secret until the morning of the ride. Some friends did last years ride which was all the backroads to Las Vegas and back to Southern California. They were so pumped about it, I decided I would do it this year.


This year, PMC recommended hotels in Coalinga, California. From there, we could speculate what backroads we would take. The event registration began at 7AM, last Saturday morning May 14th. Of course, I had pre-registered and was up by 4AM, since I had to load my bike and the start point was an hour from my house. I had never been to the store where the start point was so I wanted to be sure and have plenty of time just in case the unexpected occurred.

I rode with my motorcycle club - West Coast Biker Chicks... it was only the 2 of us. But some other friends rode with another motorcycle group and there were 12 of them. At first, I wanted to ride with my friends but 14 people makes a really long line; hence, slower traveling and stopping would be a long affair just for a photo opportunity.

So as soon as we checked in, my fellow WCBC, Wendy and I took off. 715AM our ride began... and what an adventure! It was also a poker ride so at every check-in we got a poker card and they had raffles. At first, I looked at the map and realized we had checkpoints due in 2 hour increments. This is to verify we were following the route correctly and to pick up a poker card. Then I saw the time of the last check-in... 5PM and approximately 300 miles later and thought (seriously) what kind of sissy ride is this? I'm used to competition riding 1,000 miles in 18 hours or teaser rides of 100-250 miles with various motorcycle groups and making a day out of it since it's mostly about hanging out with other women bikers. I was thinking that this crazy short ride and it's suppose to be the best ride of my life?

Our checkpoints were approximately every 100 miles and since we left almost 2 hours early, we knew we would make our time and get to our hotel early; hence my disappointment in stopping in the middle of daylight. I have not ridden Central California before except on the Interstate. But we only were on the I-5 for just a few miles and all of it were country roads that had the most amazing views of lakes, farm land and vineyards. We took our time since it was just the 2 of us - stopping for pictures, lunch and slowing down and enjoying the scenic views.

We went over several cattle guards, bumps and potholes... the roads were not well kept but that's probably what added to the charm of the ride. That last cattle guard, we went over had a huge bump that I could not avoid. And I went too fast over it bottoming out. I felt something hit my leg and I thought maybe something broke off my bike but I didn't want to stop. If I did stop, there would be nothing I could do anyway with the lack of civilization and minimal tools. All I could do was keep going and hope for the best.

We did get to our hotel around 430PM, and I must admit I definately must be getting old. That little 300 mile scenic route wore me out. Of course, I had been up since very early and was so excited about the ride that I slept only 3 hours the night before. So if you count riding from my house it had been almost 11 1/2 hour day with 350 miles down. As we parked, I noticed I was leaking oil... yes, I must have bottomed out one too many times. But luckily, one of the bikers that was on the ride checked it out and said I blew my left shock. I'd still be ok to finish the ride and oil will continue to squirt out. I would just be uncomfortable since one side of my bike would not have shocks. And I won a raffle prize... a Harley-Davidson zippo lighter. Way cool, although I don't smoke.



(Dry water crossing that we rode over. No water.)

(My Harley-Davidson packed with my overnight back, which made the perfect backrest!)



(I don't even recall the roads we were on except they were all backroads of Central California.)




(More country roads - we saw baby and adult cows who all waved to me with their tails. Everywhere I turned cows were waving at me. Kinda freaky but of course when cows lift their tails to wave, stuff exits their backside... not so cool... but perhaps we just scared the poo out of 'em with our loud bikes!)

 

(We were in awe of the country-side.)

Day 2 was my favorite as far as scenery. It was a bit uncomfortable due to the blown shock and my back was killing me going over each bump, pothole and more bottoming out. But there were more water crossings with actual water! And due to the night rain, the road was damp... in some areas there were rocks in the road as with mud. One of the PMC riders slid on some mud and dumped his bike. His bike was alittle scraped up and he was okay but needed a break. There were so many people in a rush to get to the next checkpoint. We were passed by several bikers and we didn't understand the rush since we were lolligagging stopping for photos, riding really slow to enjoy the scenery.


(This ride had everything - mountains, country, vineyards, olive farms, cows and longhorns.)



(With all bike rides, you cannot forget about the elements - it was cold in the mountains and cloudy skies brought rain.)

(There were so many lakes I had not even heard of before! Amazing sights!)

(So picturesque! PMC did an awesome job researching this route.)

(My fellow WCBC, Wendy - yes, we had to cross a few low water crossings. This was the deepest and in my opinion the most fun part of the trip!)

(As I gunned my bike through, I realized I went to fast and it looked like I was parting the water! As soon as the water hit my pipes, steam billowed although it's difficult to see in this picture. I only wish I had this on video! Luckily, we both made it through upright, first try.)

(So many curves, switchbacks and hills - this is by far the best ride I've ever gone on!)

(There were several miles of tree canopy that I thought was just an awesome sight!)

(Meeting up with the 101 in Morro Bay)

We were riding so slow and took a leisurely lunch in Morrow Bay that we were actually running alittle behind schedule. You can't beat fresh seafood - we had fresh clams in a bouillabaisse that was delicious! We soon made up our time by speeding at 80mph in some straight aways. I won't be surprised if I get a speeding ticket in the mail or something. I hope not. We made it to our final checkpoint at 430PM. There were still several riders out and they extended the checkpoint hours but I know my 12 friends were so far behind schedule they skipped the checkpoint and went home. And it started to rain. But then again what kind of biker roadtrip would it be without rain?

As far as sissy ride, I take it back. I was beat. Total mileage 753 miles in 22 1/2 hours of riding time, extended over 2 days time.

(On the very first day, we went over so many potholes, bumps in the road, cattle guards - it was unbelievable! After that last cattle guard, there was a huge bump in the road and I took it too fast. I blew my left shock and oil spurted every where. Of course, I didn't notice this until we got to the hotel in Coalinga. I bottomed out several times and the last one, I knew did some damage but I couldn't figure out what and we didn't stop to check it out. One of the fellow bikers we saw on the road checked it out and said it was my shock. No more comfy riding but I'd be able to finish the ride and buy new ones or get these ones re-built when I got home.)

In the meantime, I have the option of getting my shocks re-built or just purchase new ones. After 10 years, I think these shocks have served me well. I noticed with 10 year old bike, things are starting to fall apart from age. Some friends have told me to trade in and get a new one but I'm particularly fond of this bike and we've had many awesome roadtrips together.