Elevate Magazine - May 2022

Little Taste of Home

Husband and wife team bring Japanese flair to St. Joseph corridor

BY MICHELLE PAWELSKI // PHOTOS BY SHILOH FRANCIS

Opening an authentic Japanese restaurant had always been the plan for the Johnsons. Yukiko is from Okinawa and Jeff served there with the Air Force. It is where they met nearly 30 years ago.

So, when SUMO Japanese Kitchen came up for sale in 2016, they knew it was time. “This had been a dream for us to do something like this. We always knew this was the route we wanted to go,” said Jeff. “We wanted to be business partners together; we knew we could get along because we complement each other so well.”

Photo courtesy of Jeff Johnson

The family moved to Rapid City from Japan in 2014 when Jeff was stationed at Ellsworth Air Force Base. Jeff and Yukiko, who is in Japan visiting family for the first time since 2019, planned to build a restaurant but saw a perfect opportunity when the 214 St. Joseph Street location came up for sale. The couple closed on the restaurant in January 2017, just a few days after Jeff retired from his 24-year service with the Air Force. “I retired on a Friday, and we closed on that next Monday.”

The couple decided to stay in the area after Jeff’s retirement, allowing their son Eric to finish high school. He is now a junior at South Dakota School of Mines & Technology studying computer science. “Eric is a little bit of an anchor,” Jeff said. “We moved around so much throughout his life; we wanted to give him an opportunity to finish high school and then he kind of rolled into college.”

Eric makes the short commute from school to his family’s restaurant five days a week to work as server and sushi chef. He started working under the previous owner.

It was a Japanese restaurant when the couple purchased the building. “We took over the (previous) menu and took what we liked. They had a concept to serve the local college students and that was great. We were happy to continue that. They were neighbors and there was a history.” The couple, however, wanted to add their personal style to the menu and focused more on sushi, something they were both passionate about.

Located on the western edge of the SD Mines and Technology campus, SUMO Japanese Kitchen is in the former Hall Inn, a longtime, local dive bar. Opened in 1967, the Hall Inn served as a favorite hangout for college students well into the 21st Century. While things have changed quite a bit since the Hall Inn days, Jeff said they still have a large college student customer base. “We do our best to keep them coming in. Sometimes a whole fraternity comes in,” Jeff said referring to 37 students who filled up the restaurant a few days earlier.

SUMO’s menu has a mixture of rice and noodle bowls along with sushi. After taking over ownership, Jeff and Yukiko added new vendors for fresh fish and started making their own sauces. They feature a new, unique sushi roll each week created by their longtime sushi chef, Rino Micua. “I lived in Japan for 10 years and ate sushi constantly, and I would easily put him up against anyone in the country. He is a fantastic chef and one of our greatest assets.”

The couple is hands-on with Jeff charged in maintenance to the more than 50-year-old building, and Yukikko working closely with Rino on the menu. “It was a lot of work that first year, but then we got into a routine and were able to enjoy it more and more,” Jeff said. “At this point, five years later, it is a wellrun machine.”

The couple has never advertised, with business coming in from word of mouth and online reviews. Jeff credits much of SUMO’s success to their amazing team. Most of the staff has been with Jeff and Yukiko for more than a year and a few, including their son Eric and Rino, with them since opening day. “We have a fantastic group of people,” Jeff said.

The couple’s original hope was to do an Izakaya, a Japanese tapas bar, however soon discovered their Rapid City-location posed some obstacles. “When we got into restaurant ownership and dealing with local vendors, we realized pretty quickly there were so many things we were limited on and couldn’t get here. We pulled back on what we initially wanted to do and focused on the quality of what we have. It is not as varied as we had hoped, but I think we have done pretty well with what we can do.”

They do hope that additional eateries, like Bokujo Ramen, opening will create more of a demand and increase the supplies offered by vendors.

Jeff and Yukiko plan to continue serving up high-quality, authentic Japanese food with the goal to expand their kitchen and add additional menu offerings like ramen. “We really love what we do now. We plan to keep refining what we are doing here and keep our devoted customer base coming in,” Jeff said.

HOURS: Tuesday - Saturday

Lunch 11 – 3 p.m.

Dinner 4:30 – 8 p.m.