SAUCE MAGAZINE
Posted On: 01/31/2012
In this month's Five Questions column, we spoke with Eliott Harris about St. Louis' first sushi food truck. Now, in the second part of the interview, he's revealing even more about his plans for Chop Shop, from how the idea first came about to what it's like to be in business for himself for the first time to the best sushi he's ever had.
What sort of sushi will you have, and how will you provide a filling, sushi lunch at an affordable price? It’s Japanese-inspired, so we’re taking a different sort of angle. At the beginning, we’re not going to be doing any sort of nigiri or sashimi. We’re going to have stir-frys that are hearty and warm, and rolls that are variations of things I’ve done in the past. They’re going to be rolled with a ton of ingredients, and the size of a burrito. It’ll be anywhere between $7 and $9 for one, so it’ll be affordable. We’re also going to be serving “Deconstructed Rolls,” which will be like a rice bowl with fish, fresh vegetables, and sexed-up, signature sauces. All the entrees with be served with fresh-popped wasabi popcorn, which is popcorn with melted butter with a hint of fresh wasabi whisked into it, mixed with toasted nori seafood furikake, which is basically little shreds of toasted seaweed, sesame seeds, and salt.
And now you’ll be in business for yourself. In the last 10 years I’ve opened three restaurants around the country, and I was ready to do my own thing. Earlier in the year, the Miso owner and I were working on a project for a brick-and-mortar place in Webster Groves, and we just couldn’t come to an agreement on the lease with the building owner. Then, when I started looking at a food truck, things started making more and more sense. There’s a much lower overhead, and a lot more creative freedom; you can change the menu instantly and as often as you want. It’s not like a restaurant where you would have to retrain the staff and reprint the menus to change them.
So that’s how the idea for the truck came to you? I’ve been in this industry for over 20 years now, and the last 12 have been strictly with sushi, and I saw an opening in this market. I was surprised by how quickly the food trucks have taken off in the last year. There is a bit of overlap – for instance, there are two pizza trucks, etc, but no one is doing Japanese, and that’s my comfort zone and my passion. This has been a hard work in progress over the last couple of months, but when I found the truck, I pounced. I found the truck on sale in Miami, online on a Friday, had a friend look at it on the next Tuesday, a mechanic looked at it on Wednesday, and I was on a plane to Miami the next Sunday, driving it back up to St. Louis a few days later.
Where will you park the truck? Right now I just have a permit for the City. After the first of the year, I’ll start looking at getting a County permit. We’ve picked up a lot of followers since the last “Dorm Room Dinner” (http://www.saucemagazine.com/blog/?p=1273). We had the truck up and going for the first time for full service there. I’m fortunate in the respect that I have my commissary set up at the Koken Art Factory. The same guy who owns that also owns a 30,000 square-foot building across the street where we want to host indoor food truck events. It’ll hold six to ten food trucks, a DJ, a bar, and tables. We could make that a huge event.
Will you play music from a PA system on the truck, like some of them do? No, but the truck will be rockin’, for sure. There’ll be music in the kitchen, and it’ll have to be loud to be heard over the noise from the generator.
Will there eventually be sashimi or nigiri? If there’s a demand for it. The way the truck is set up, there won’t be an actual sushi case.
On the Chop Shop Facebook page, you have a group of preliminary company logos that didn’t make the final cut. I liked the rejected design with Godzilla on it. I’ve been a Godzilla fan for a long time. I have a big foot and-a-half tall Godzilla that lives on the truck. The people who came up with the whole Godzilla logo and licensing are pretty strict, though — no one has permission to use anything Godzilla-related.
Where do you source your fish? I’m pretty much sourcing all my fish through companies in Chicago that get daily shipments from all over the world. I have a daily delivery schedule with them. I call in my order that night, and I have the order by 8 the next morning.
What are price points on the menu? The rice and noodle dishes will be in the $7 to $8 range, and the big-ass sushi rolls will be $7 to $9.
How did you become a sushi chef? After I went to culinary school, I was a sous chef and then an executive chef, and I always thought how great it would be to get my foot in the door at a Japanese restaurant. When I was working in Vail, Colorado, I was in the right place at the right time. I was apprenticing as a sushi chef at the Hyatt at the time, and I was interviewed by a sushi restaurant, and lo and behold, they hired me. However, the chef hated me. It took him six months to say my name right. He called me ‘Eddie.’ At first I didn’t even know it was me he was yelling at, but then he made it pretty clear. If there was one grain of rice out of place on a roll, he would flick it at me. For the longest time, he wouldn’t even serve a roll that I had made. But in two years, I learned a lot about respect and keeping my mouth shut and doing what I was told. (Laughs) Now we’re friends and we talk all the time. When I opened a restaurant in Miami a while ago, he came down and worked for me. From Colorado, I went to San Francisco and worked at one of the top five sushi bars in a city that has 200 or so sushi bars. Then, I opened up a sushi bar in the Dominican Republic, and then in the Florida Keys, and then, Miami. And never in a million years did I think I would end up back in St. Louis, where I’m from. But it’s been three years now, and I’m really happy with the transition.
Describe the best sushi meal you’ve ever had. There’s a place I’ve been going to for over 20 years in South Beach called Toni’s (http://tonisushi.com/), and to my knowledge it’s the first Japanese restaurant in Miami. It’s really straightforward. They don’t focus on the rolls, they just have really good quality nigiri and sashimi. When I’m in Florida, I’ll drive more than an hour out of my way to go there. That’s my favorite place.
Have you ever prepped the infamous fugu pufferfish, which could be fatal to the diner if prepared incorrectly? I have not worked with the fugu.
- Photo by Laura Miller
