SUSHI SOPHISTICATE

Longtime Server Woo Is The Star Of Ku

By LISA KRESL / Photos by KATHY TRAN

WOO S. LEE greets customers at Ku Sushi like he has for the last 10 years.

The restaurant, which is tucked into the first floor of the Preston Forest Village Shopping Center, is a neighborhood favorite.

“When people come in, they ask for Woo,” says Chang Choi, who owns Ku Sushi with his brother and uncle. “He gets caught up all of the time because people want to talk to him. They really are friends with him.”

Choi and family have owned the restaurant for the last five years. The primary chef is Limwoo Lee. Like Woo, the food is comfortingly familiar. The restaurant is known for its rice-less rolls.

The Ku special boat serves three, costs $109.95 and includes miso soup, seaweed salad and tuna, salmon and yellowtail sushi and sashimi, and more. Bestsellers include the $16.95 love roll (salmon, crab meat and avocado wrapped with soy paper and tuna topped with ponzu sauce), the $15.25 valentine roll (salmon, avocado and mango wrapped with crab meat and topped with spicy sweet sauce) and the $16.95 Kristy roll (tuna, salmon, yellowtail, crab meat and asparagus wrapped with cucumber and topped with apple ponzu sauce).

Try the $15.25 Preston roll (salmon, crab meat and cream cheese wrapped with soybean paper and deep fried with ponzu sauce).

Families have grown up coming to Ku Sushi. Parents enjoy the wine selection, which rivals that of nearby wine bars, and kids who started with fried rice and California rolls quickly became teenagers who ask for the chef’s specials.

The restaurant also serves sake, cocktails and a selection of Japanese beers.

Choi says fresh fish arrives Mondays and Thursdays. Monday, Tuesday and Thursday evenings are less crowded. Reservations are recommended on weekend nights.

Those who work nearby know this insider tip for lunch: Get the bento box or roll combo to go. “It’s pretty quick for sushi,” Choi says.

“Woo seems shy, but he is sincere,” Choi says. “People who know us, know him. We know everyone who comes here.”

Next time you see Woo, try saying “Arigato gozaimasu” (pronounced ah-REE-gah-toh gohzai-mahss) — which means thank you very much.

DID YOU KNOW?

Sushi means vinegar in Japanese. It refers to the vinegar used to season the rice.

Ku Sushi

11661 Preston Road, Suite 160 Preston Forest Village kusushidallas.net

Churchill Estates at Lake Highlands LIVE WELL

“The residents, the staff, and the whole atmosphere are wonderful. Our apartment is lovely, well-designed and has beautiful decorative features.”

-Marcia, resident

With

More Places To Get Your Sushi Fix

Blue Sushi Sake Grill

Known for sushi, craft cocktails and vivid decor.

7859 Walnut Hill Lane, suite 180 bluesushisakegrill.com

Rock & Roll Sushi

Classics served with rock music. 6109 Berkshire Lane rockandrollsushi.com

Sushi Star

Japanese and Korean specials. 5956 Royal Lane

Sushi at The Mercury

Dishes with sake and spirits in a Japanese setting.

11909 Preston Road, suite 1418 themercurydallas.com

• Personal Training

• Designer Kitchens

• Heated Pool

• Champagne Lounge Call

IN THE HALLS of Jesuit College Preparatory School, students walk daily with Dalí.

The Jesuit Dallas Museum features a collection of more than 500 works from five continents and 25 countries, including those by Salvador Dalí, R.C. Gorman, Georges Braque Diego Rivera and Robert Rauschenberg. Paintings, sculptures and ceramics fill the hallways, courtyards, classrooms and library.

“The museum is unique in the region and, perhaps, in the entire center of the country,” says Dallas Morning News art critic Richard Brettell, who is the Margaret McDermott Distinguished Chair at the University of Texas at Dallas. “At Jesuit, students can be exposed to important works of art by a wide range of artists and to works from the traditions of Native Americans. This is not true for the much richer schools in Dallas like St. Mark’s or Hockaday or analogous ones like Ursuline or Cistercian.”

The museum was incorporated in 1986 as a nonprofit institution. It shares the campus with the school but is separately chartered and has its own board of trustees.

Jesuit alumnus Frank Ribelin’s 1988 gift of largely contemporary art first established the collection. He believed that art should play a role in education and provide an escape from day-to-day pressures, Brettell says.

Museum Director Elizabeth Hunt Blanc says some of the more significant pieces on display are those by John Nieto, “Man with the Gold Tooth” by David Bates and “Navajo Code Talker” by R.C. Gorman, who has been called “the Picasso of American Indian art.” She is working on obtaining accreditation from the American Alliance of Museums.

Jesuit College Preparatory School

Year Established: 1942

Enrollment: 1,100

Tuition: $18,150

Blanc and 25 docents conduct tours and work with teachers to design hands-on projects for students. Art from the collection supplements lessons from English, Spanish and theology to math and science.

A group of 5-year-olds from the Learning Tree School recently toured the exhibit.

The museum partners with the Perot Museum of Science and Nature by lending pieces.

The museum currently features three works by the Andrew Bark Scholarship recipient, Evan Hargrave, Class of 2018. The Andrew Bark 1998 Memorial Scholarship is awarded annually to a rising senior who excels in the visual arts at Jesuit.

The museum is also hosting a show by Jesuit alumnus David Collins in conjunction with the Valley House Gallery. The Collins exhibit continues through May 25.

To schedule a free tour, email Blanc at ehuntblanc@jesuitcp.org.

— LISA KRESL

Brenda Vaccaro Thomas Jefferson High School

Nearly every article about actress Brenda Vaccaro, 79, references her husky voice. Born in Brooklyn, she was raised in Dallas and appeared in several Thomas Jefferson High School productions. Now she has an Emmy, a Golden Globe, three Tony nominations and an Oscar nomination. Standout performances were in “Cactus Flower,” “The Goodbye People,” “Once Is Not Enough” and the 1969 film “Midnight Cowboy.” She also vamped it up on ’80s TV shows such as “The Love Boat” and “Golden Girls.”

Three things to know

1 Vaccaro’s father Mario Vaccaro, an attorney who had always been interested in cooking, came to Dallas and cofounded Mario’s restaurant.

2 She lived with actor Michael Douglas for several years before breaking it off. “There was this really strong connection — spiritually, sexually, and so overpowering I could not handle it,” she said in Closer Weekly. “Everything was different back then. There were a lot of drugs. We hung out with Angelica Huston and Jack Nicholson, and it was a crazy time. I’ve had the most amazing life!”

3 Married four times, Vaccaro’s current husband is 20 years her junior. When the California resident landed a part in Netflix’s series “Gypsy,” which filmed in New York, she jumped at the chance. “We’re married 30 years,” she told Page Six. “I told him, ‘The hell with it. Getting a job like this is fortunate. Until I get nominated, you sit in L.A. and rot.’ ”

—LISA KRESL