"Miki" Fusion Sushi Opens in Laguna TONIGHT
Thanks to Chris Olsen, former 242 Sushi is same starring menu, same returning team
It’s been almost two years to the day that 242 Café Fusion Sushi posted a notice on their door that their Chef/Owner Miki Izumisawa had passed and that the restaurant was expected to reopen with no set date determined.
Chef Miki died on July 28th, 2022.
Today – July 22nd, 2024 – Restaurateur Chris Olsen (Wine Gallery) and business partner Greg Washer have reopened the popular sushi fusion space.
This time, though, it’s called “Miki Sushi + Saké.”
Miki Sushi + Saké is still in the same small nook – the 242 Coast Highway location. And Miki’s entire original sushi staff is here to greet you - this was absolutely key to Chris’ commitment to re-open the restaurant in Miki’s honor.
Phone Reservations and Hours
After a couple weeks of soft opens with close friends and family, Chris told me today that the phone is now officially “on” for reservations at (949) 494-2444. And, although the restaurant floor plan has been slightly expanded to include 32 seats, you’d better be picking up that phone now because this is going to be some kind of happy reunion for Laguna Beach residents and Miki’s biggest fans.
Before I get too far into this story, the hours currently are Tuesday through Saturday, 4:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Once a few weeks are under their belts, Chris will eventually add Sunday to the mix.
All in honor of Miki
About a week ago, Chris Olsen and the returning all-female staff of sushi chefs greeted me with big smiles. This, alone, is a statement in and of itself.
The staff isn’t all that’s returning … the original, super-artsy, amazingly-creative menu is back in full force, too. Longtime fans will remember their favorites like the “Whole Hole,” the “Laguna Canyon,” the “Lava Roll,” and the “Sexy Hand Roll” to name a few. (I’ll get to the food in a moment.)
“My wife and I used to go to 242 Sushi before we had kids,” said Olsen. “It didn’t take someone in the restaurant business to see that what Miki was doing was one-of-a-kind … it went way beyond “fusion” as far as I was concerned.
“When we lost Miki, it felt like we lost the beginning of an entirely new culture. And I couldn’t get it out of my head that I wanted that back; I wanted to honor her for what she created, what she started right here in Laguna Beach,” he said.
How Miki ended up in Laguna Beach
As you may or may not know, the world of sushi chefs traditionally belongs to men. Raised in Tokyo, Miki was a recognized softball player who had plans to be a P.E teacher but in a move to Okinawa, she fell in with the artists there and began exercising her more artistic side.
When she moved to Downey, California in 1986, she began working in Japanese restaurants where she discovered she had a flair for sushi preparation. She rose in the ranks there as a sushi chef, then moved to train personally with Nobu Matsuhisha in Newport Beach. Again a rising star there, Miki was asked to help open Nobu’s much larger edifice in Las Vegas.
But, treated with disdain by her fellow sushi chefs, Miki quit. She moved to Laguna Beach, opened her own restaurant in January 2000, and proceeded to only hire and train female chefs.
Every single one of those sushi chefs is back, thanks to Chris Olsen.
The Dream Team is back
In September 2023, Olsen and Washer bought the corporation, which came with all the recipes, the menu and the lease.
“Many months ago, Chris approached Megumi and Evelia first and they helped him round up the rest of us. It was such a great surprise but it also felt like coming home again,” said Crystal Ryan, who’s now the “front-facing” sushi chef and fish buyer.
“I knew we had found the right owner because this is all Miki wanted before she passed,” she finished.
Added Olsen, "“It took us longer than we had hoped to get the restaurant open again and I thought we’d probably lose one or two of the chefs.
“I just kept meeting with them, giving them updates, hoping they’d stay. Megumi got sick and chose to return to Japan, but we have everyone else - Evilia Campo (22 year veteran), Ana Garcia (15 year veteran), Crystal Ryan (5 year veteran), and Ako Sakaguchi and Sami Takahashi (2 year veterans),” he said.
A rejuvenated space
It’s still the original footprint but the space is lighter and brighter now with new flooring, wall coverings and fun, wood block stools at the sushi bar. Somehow, Olsen and Washer have managed to adjust the floor plan, too, with the addition of 11 seats from the original 21 that, quite honestly, felt more crammed in the original.
And, then, there’s the completely refurbished restroom tucked to the side of the kitchen. For the record, let’s just say it’s also been re-created in Miki’s honor:
So, let’s talk the art of fusion sushi
I can still remember my first visit to 242 Sushi years ago (as we all can, I’m sure). My friends and I were crammed into a little skimboard-topped table and the dish I ordered came out looking like a giant Kansas haystack. Small surprise as it was aptly named “Prairie.”
I was absolutely bug-eyed at the concoction of pepper salmon and spicy tuna and crab and a hearty sprinkle of masago with chunks of cucumber and avocado tucked in like some kind of mosaic treasure. As a person trained to order multiple dishes of sushi, the haystack took me down in one fail swoop.
I returned repeatedly in those days and thought I tried just about everything on the menu until COVID shut everything down.
But on my visit just a few days ago, Chris and team came up with a batch of recommended delicacies that I hadn’t even tried before. Small surprise that I missed a few dishes back in the day because the menu is enormous with …
8 super-inventive appetizers
10 fusion sashimi items
13 fusion rolls (that include several Diane-termed “haystacks”, so we’re talking some size here in these “rolls”),
15 hand or cut rolls (which still look and taste like fusion because nothing but nothing is “normal sushi” here)
5 super-hearty salads
2 soups
23 fusion nigiri dishes (including Miki’s popular Yellowtail Banana)
AND 8 vegetarian dishes that are crafted masterpieces
I started with the only one I remembered from back in the day – the Lava Roll. It wasn’t installed on the menu yet, but I figure it rolls into the Fusion Roll category because it was a mad genius mix of crab, spicy tuna and salmon with misago and fine-chop macadamia nuts wrapped in a red chard leaf wrap. It surfed happily in Miki’s famed soy onion sauce.
Next up from the Fusion Nigiri offerings were two buttery, sublime sushi dishes - the Serrano Salmon (topped with serrano pepper and a miso sauce with a dash of tosazu - slightly smoky vinegar – and the White Fish Chili (topped with crunchy chili oil and soy onion sauce).
At this point, I’m already full but the food keeps coming. Next is my evening’s favorite - the Whole Hole from the Fusion Sashimi side of the menu. I honestly don’t know how this creation even occurred to Miki but we can thank the gods it did. It’s super-thin slices of salmon, snapper and tuna done carpaccio-style and topped with melt-in-your-mouth lotus root (who knew?), buckwheat shiso, shavings of scallions and SMD sauce.
(Oldtimer fans, if you can be the very first person to tell me
what ‘SMD” stands for, you get a real prize from me.
Hit “REPLY” in this email to send me a note.”)
Then, it’s back to the Nigiri side with the Scallop Truffle, a super-fresh scallop topped in a beet truffle sauce. (I’m seriously not making this up.)
Finally, it’s the celebrity return of the Sexy Handroll, and there’s plenty of flash in this baby. Big chunks of crab, spicy tuna and scallop are topped with masago and (this is not a typo) crumbled Corn Flakes with a hearty slice or two of avocado, a crunch of spring lettuce mix and that mysterious SMD sauce. Its yellow soy paper wrap tries valiantly to keep it all under wraps but you know how these celebrities can sometimes be.
And then there’s the wine … because it’s Chris Olsen
As Miki and Chris Olsen became friends back in the day, he did a lot to help introduce great partnered wines to her wunderworld creations.
As the longtime owner of Wine Gallery and a grape-dyed-in-the-toes enthusiast, Olsen has restructured and vastly expanded the wine and sake menu with bright and sublime pairings that you’re going to love (well, I certainly did).
“Typically, you don’t see a lot of great offerings at sushi restaurants, but this is clearly not your typical sushi restaurant - it never has been,” said Olsen. “So, I’ve pulled in some of my all-time favorites, and we’ll always be moving wines and trying new tastes. It’s all part of the experience.”
Full circle for Miki
Isn’t it just awesome that a woman once shunned as a sushi chef is now being honored in such a great way for her legacy work? Miki Izumisawa truly paved the way, upending a centuries-old tradition and knocking it right out of the park in the process. Now, the team she brought together is back in play and they’re aiming for the fences, too.
It seems our softball player from Tokyo has found her way to the championship podium after all.