Author: danielhonigman

By Daniel B. Honigman

Chicago has long been known as a meat-and-potatoes town—the kind of city where business deals are done over a steak and a handshake.

But in the city of broad shoulders, dishes like ebi, unagi and sashimi have become as familiar as filet mignon, tartare and sauce Béarnaise to gourmands, entrepreneurs, hipsters and average joes alike. Times change, and so does the food.
The sushi craze is more frenzied than ever in the Windy City, and Kamehachi can be credited with jump-starting the trend, as the restaurant celebrates its 40th anniversary this year.

Opening in 1967 at its original location in then-bohemian Old Town, Kamehachi was the first sushi bar in Chicago, located conveniently near the newly built Midwest Buddhist Temple. The modest 50-seat restaurant signaled the beginning of an era, with founder Marion Konishi dishing out sushi to local Japanese businessmen. However, it would take a little longer for skeptical Chicagoans to catch on—despite the neighborhood’s then-rising hipness. “Old Town at that time was a very vibrant community, with a lot of bohemian and hippie elements,” says Giulia Sindler, Konishi’s granddaughter and one of Kamehachi’s current owners. “But we still didn’t get many American customers.”

The restaurant soon gained popularity, as sushi caught on nationwide—and it didn’t hurt that Kamehachi was located across the street from Second City. (Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi were frequent patrons during the filming of The Blues Brothers.) Nor did it hurt that Kamehachi, a sushi bar, and other Japanese restaurants already in the city, allowed patrons to actually see their sushi being made firsthand, with sushi chefs given a chance to show off their skills. “My grandmother made tempura (deep-fried shrimp and vegetables) in front of the customers,” Sindler says. “It was very unusual to have the tempura and sushi stations in front of the customers so they could watch what was going on.”

In addition, the Japanese dining experience was new for most Americans, but its rise happened to coincide with the rise of a new “foodie” class, says Bruce Kraig, president of the Culinary Historians of Chicago. “Sitting at low tables seemed interesting and exotic, and Americans have always been interested in that sort of thing,” he says. “ This was part of the new food culture.”

But, says Kraig, parts of Japanese food were easier to accept than others, and sushi, at the beginning, was left out. “Forty years ago, people weren’t necessarily into raw tuna or eating poisonous blowfish,” he says. “Tempura and teriyaki—fried foods
Americans eat—they were certainly familiar to Americans. They just didn’t eat sushi then.”

But we certainly do now. Nearly a half-century later (and with five locations in Chicago and Northbrook), Kamehachi is going strong, and because of its success, the restaurant—and Konishi—can be credited for spawning Chicago’s sushi scene, as they were responsible for bringing in many sushi chefs and cooks from Japan, says Sharon Perazzoli, Konishi’s daughter. “Many of them stayed in Chicago and went on to open their own restaurants,” she says. “Because we’ve been around for so long, I think you’ll find that, in a great majority of Chicago’s sushi restaurants, there’s probably someone we know or someone who has worked for us at some point.”

While Kamehachi is a traditional sushi bar, many newer restaurants have pushed the cuisine’s boundaries, drawing in an even more eclectic group of customers. Monica Samuels, general manager of SushiSamba Rio (504 N. Wells, 312/595-2300), says that on any given Saturday night, the restaurant can serve up to 700 customers. What keeps them coming, she says, is the food, a fusion of traditional Japanese dishes with Brazilian and Peruvian flavors. “People don’t only want California rolls,” Samuels says. “Our chefs have the opportunity to try different ingredients and different sauces. You’ll see hearts of palm or chimichurri on sushi rolls, but if you come here and order basic nigiri sushi, it’s still amazing. If we used only spicy mayonnaise and avocado, we’d be limited. You can have some fun with sushi.”

Regardless of how it’s made or the ingredients it’s paired with, sushi really has become a Chicago staple, and it’s not likely to fall off the culinary radar any time soon. “It’s pretty phenomenal,” Perazzoli says. “ When Kamehachi opened 40 years ago, nobody wanted to eat raw fish, but today even young children are eating sushi and raw fish. Sushi has completely evolved since the time my mother (who died in 1990) started Kamehachi. I think we only had cucumber rolls, a few different pieces of sushi, and that was it. Today, all kinds of ingredients are going into sushi, and the more complex and creative it becomes, the more people like it.”

So, what about steak? John Colletti, managing partner of Gibsons Steakhouse (1028 N. Rush, 312/266-8999) and Hugo’s Frog Bar (1024 N. Rush, 312/640-0999), isn’t ready to pack it up quite yet. “Sushi really has taken off,” he says. “But while I see more and more restaurants in Chicago featuring sushi, I think Chicago’s still a meat-and-potatoes town.”

This story originally appeared in the Sept. 13 issue of UR Chicago Magazine. You can pick it up from a UR Chicago box in downtown Chicago or you can read it here.

John Coté, Matt Bigelow, Daniel B. Honigman, Special to The Chronicle
Saturday, September 8, 2007

Fugitive political fundraiser Norman Hsu was behaving erratically as he fled the Bay Area on Amtrak’s California Zephyr, at one point stripping off his shirt and shoes, before paramedics were called to take him off the train in western Colorado, passengers said Friday.

Hsu, 56, on the run for the second time from a 1992 grand theft conviction in San Mateo County, was arrested Thursday after the paramedics took him to a hospital from the train station in Grand Junction, Colo. A spokesman at St. Mary’s Hospital said Friday night that Hsu was in fair condition but would not say what was wrong with him.

Hsu boarded the train in Emeryville about 7 a.m. Wednesday, Amtrak said, two hours before he was to have appeared in a Redwood City courtroom in connection with his grand theft conviction. He had touched down earlier that morning on a charter jet flight to Oakland, his lawyer told prosecutors. Amtrak said he boarded the Zephyr with a ticket for Denver.

Passengers interviewed Friday when the Zephyr reached its final destination of Chicago said it appeared that something was wrong with Hsu.

Alberto Dee, 21, who boarded the train in Truckee, said Hsu “freaked out” when Amtrak personnel approached, and was roaming a train car “without shoes and no shirt. … I thought he had a suitcase full of crack or meth.”

Another passenger disembarking in Chicago, who declined to give his name, said Hsu appeared disoriented and was having trouble opening a door on the train. Several other passengers said they were told Hsu was behaving oddly but did not witness it themselves.

Hsu’s attorney, Jim Brosnahan, said Friday, “a great many friends of Norman Hsu have expressed concern about his mental health and physical well-being” since he disappeared. Paramedics were called to the Grand Junction station about 10 minutes after the Zephyr pulled in Thursday at 11:05 a.m. with “a request for a backboard to assist someone who had fallen on the train,” said Mike Page, a spokesman for the Grand Junction Fire Department.

Paramedics helped Hsu off the train and took him to St. Mary’s Hospital. “He was assessed on the train but was able to get off the train on his own with assistance,” Page said, adding that the backboard ultimately was not needed.

Dan Roberts, 57, a furniture maker from Grand Junction, said Hsu had been sitting up on a stretcher on the station platform and appeared to be moving.

“We just figured he had a heart attack or something,” said his wife, Cheryl Roberts, 52, a nurse.

Federal agents arrested Hsu at St. Mary’s Hospital about 7 p.m. Thursday. Hospital officials would not say how authorities had been alerted that Hsu was there.

Brosnahan said he was “pleased and relieved” that Hsu was now being cared for at the hospital. “We will be getting him the best medical care available.”

“The strain he has been under during the last week has been enormous and, perhaps, unbearable,” Brosnahan said in a prepared statement.

On Wednesday, after Hsu failed to show up for his court hearing, Brosnahan said he was concerned about his client. But when asked whether Hsu posed a danger to himself, Brosnahan replied, “I have no basis for that speculation.”

Hsu was under armed guard at the hospital on federal charges of unlawful flight to avoid prosecution. California Attorney General Jerry Brown’s office sought federal authorities’ help after Hsu failed to appear at Wednesday’s hearing to surrender his passport.

Hsu had been a fugitive for 15 years since skipping his sentencing on the grand theft conviction, transforming himself during that time into one of the Democratic Party’s more prolific donors.

The federal charges will be dropped once Hsu is returned to California to face sentencing in state court in the grand theft case, FBI spokesman Joseph Schadler said. A timetable for his return to California has not been established.

Hsu was facing up to three years in state prison and restitution payments after pleading no contest to a single count of grand theft in 1992 in what prosecutors described as a $1 million fraud scheme involving the supposed resale of latex gloves.

In fact, prosecutors said, Hsu was running a Ponzi scheme, in which early investors get returns on their money through funds that subsequent investors put in, and the later investors lose their shirts.

After he fled sentencing in San Mateo County, Hsu appears to have spent time in Hong Kong, the Philippines and Taiwan, before emerging in recent years as a New Yorker who donated generously to Democratic political campaigns, regularly attended fundraisers and was photographed with party leaders.

Hsu has given an estimated $600,000 to Democratic political campaigns since 2003, money that many candidates are now pledging to donate to charity.

Hsu surrendered to San Mateo County sheriff’s deputies last week after press accounts linked him to the grand theft case. He spent a few hours in county jail before posting $2 million bail and agreeing to relinquish his passport.

After Hsu failed to show up in court Wednesday, a judge issued a no-bail warrant for his arrest.

Chronicle correspondents Matt Bigelow and Daniel B. Honigman reported from Chicago, and staff writer John Coté reported from San Francisco. E-mail John Coté at jcote@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page A – 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle

August 22, 2007
By DANIEL HONIGMAN Contributor

Going green may never have looked so good as it does now. Nau, one of the newest clothing boutiques in Lincoln Park, is probably one of the most environmentally-friendly stores in a city where eco-savvy is in.

Using materials as diverse as organic cotton, PLA – polylactic acid, a biodegradable material derived from corn – and recycled soda bottles, Nau’s clothing is good both for people and the planet. And although the Portland, Oregon-based company prides itself on its outdoor apparel, much of its collection makes a bold statement in almost any setting.

The Chicago location at 2118 N. Halsted St,. which opened in April, is one of only four Nau stores nationwide. The other three are in Portland, Boulder, Colo., and Bellevue, Wash.

“Our clothing is used in four seasons, and Chicago is definitely a four-season market,” said Ian Yolles, vice-president of marketing at Nau. “Chicago also has a growing reputation as a city that cares about sustainability issues, so we thought it was a great city to expand to.”

Using fabrics as simple as organic cotton and merino wool to more scientific polyesters like PLA (polylactic acid, a corn-based derivative similar to polyester) to materials made from recycled soda bottles, Nau clothing looks and feels great.

“Nau clothing is a mixture of sustainability and style,” said Kevin Henry, coordinator of Columbia College’s Product Design program. “If you’re going to do something sustainable, you have to make it desirous. The folks at Nau are smart.”

But going green isn’t always cheap. A single pair of pants from Nau can cost almost $150, but Yolles says that while higher quality products necessitate higher prices, it all evens out in the end.

“One of the key attributes in any product when it comes to sustainable clothing is its durability, and I know this is counterintuitive, but while another product may be cheaper on its first purchase, our products are extremely durable and last a long time,” he said.

But while Henry believes that while higher costs are worth the bottom line, shoppers may need further convincing.

“There’s an implied obsolescence in fashion,” he said. “Companies say, ‘We need this garment to fall apart in two years to sell them another garment.’ You have to tell them to spend $150 and not look at it as a fashion statement, but as an investment in craft, quality and the environment, because if something is going to be thrown out in six months, it’s a waste of energy.”

In addition to higher-quality materials, if you notice the company’s use of more muted blues, greens and reds, well, that’s planned too, said Yolles.

“Before we designed a single style, we developed an extensive banned substance list, probably around 70 or so, which goes well beyond that of other apparel companies,” Yolles said. “There are seasonal color palates, but the next season they’re out of style. Even the way we’ve thought about our color palate is sustainable.”
Green from day one

In fall 2004, company brass from Patagonia and Nike sat down to plan Nau, and they ended up making one of the nation’s “greenest” companies.

“It was a rare opportunity to design, really from scratch, an entire company,” said Yolles. “Sustainability was at the forefront of our thought process from day one. Companies should have a much larger responsibility to the community than the singular pursuit of profit.”

Customers who walk into Nau are also in for a new retail experience. The shops, called “Webfronts,” blend in-store and online shopping experiences. One size of each clothing style is available to try on, and if a customer wishes to make an in-store purchase, they can. But Nau encourages customers to make transactions through Web-enabled booths and have the clothing shipped to their homes for a 10 percent discount.

Why the discount? It’s cheaper to house the clothing elsewhere, said Yolles. Stores can be smaller, making electric and heating bills cheaper. Also, because less clothing is actually in the stores, costs associated with store deliveries clothing are whittled down nearly to zero.

“If we were a traditional apparel retailer, our stores would have to be 3,400-to-4,500 square feet,” Yolles said. “Our Chicago store is 2,200 square feet, so theoretically, it’s about 40 percent more efficient than your traditional retail store, and that’s why we’re choosing to share our savings with customers.”

In addition, 5 percent of every purchase is donated to a charity of the customer’s choice in Nau’s Partner for Change program. There are 10 organizations to choose from, half of which work on social issues, half on the environment. And Windy City residents will be able to keep their money local, as six are in Chicago.

“I think Nau is fabulous,” said Jenna White, director of development at Christopher House, one of the local organizations. “We’re very thrilled to be working with Nau. It’s rare to see a corporation giving back like they do, and we’re hoping it’s a partnership that builds.”

(The story originally appeared in four Pioneer Press newspapers: Skyline, Booster and two editions of the News-Star)