Sushi restaurant opening downtown

by David Reed

August 7,2009

A Korean fusion restaurant with a sushi bar is opening at the end of August at 804 E. Broadway, the former location of a Quiznos sandwich shop.

Geisha Sushi Bar will be operated by Kwang Suk-yoo, 27, who has worked for nine years at Wasabi Sushi Bar in Clayton. (Wasabi also has sushi restaurants in downtown St. Louis and across the river in Edwardsville, Il.) Kwang persuaded the head chef to join him at Geisha.

Kwang’s parents came to St. Louis from South Korea 10 years ago and they own a beauty supply store.

Kwang said he was looking into the concept of owning his own sushi restaurant for awhile. During visits to Columbia, friends of his urged him to locate the restaurant here. He was impressed by the amount of foot and car traffic on the 800 block of Broadway and liked the idea of running a business in a college town.

Geisha will have an enormous flat screen TV and be decorated with floor-to-ceiling “bubble panels” that look like fountains going in reverse. The restaurant will also serve vegetarian meals and Korean favorites such as BiBim Bap.

There are now at least a half-dozen restaurants in Columbia that serve sushi, including the recently opened Bamboo Roll and Sushi at 3401 Broadway Business Park Ct., Saki Japanese Bistro on Tenth Street downtown and Kojaba, a Korean restaurant at Parkade Plaza.