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Business & Tech

Sushi Chef Rocks the (Maki) Roll With a Twist

Hurricane Katrina evacuee Jon Nguyen returns home to start over with Maki Sushi Bar & Grill on Main Street.

Maki Sushi Bar & Grill

Owner: Jon Nguyen

When tragedy strikes, some people let it roll over them, while others roll with it. Jon Nguyen is the latter type of man. The Peabody native was living in Louisiana with his parents six years ago, helping them with their shrimp business, when his life turned upside down.

Hurricane Katrina, a Category 5 storm unlike anyone had ever seen, was headed directly toward the Gulf Coast. With no time for questions, Nguyen grabbed a few articles of clothing and some important papers and fled to his older brothers' Orlando, Fla. home to wait out the storm.

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What Nguyen expected to be a minor diversion in his life turned out to be a permanent anchor. The storm, the largest ever to hit the United States and the sixth strongest hurricane ever recorded, devastated the region. With everything lost to the storm, Nguyen did the only thing he could do: find work.

The rest is history.

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“My parents ran a shrimp boat, and we had worked in seafood our whole lives. When I saw an ad in a window of a sushi bar...I thought I’d give it a try, and that was the start,” he said.

The start of something magical. Nguyen honed his talents and became head sushi chef in two restaurants, before taking the leap to venture out on his own. “I was doing really well, and my brother Kevin was living back here (in Peabody). He called me up and said, ‘Let’s do it.’ I drove 23 hours home and started scouting for a location.”

In 2010, the brothers opened at 43 Main St. Nguyen describes his method as “Japanese food with a twist.”

What’s the twist? “Well, a lot of sushi places have the tuna maki roll and the California roll; of course we offer all the traditional sushi, but we also have tempura striped bass topped with kiwi and strawberry in a sweet chili sauce — a lot of people like it,” Nguyen said. “Or our spicy tuna topped with fresh mango, but our top seller is the Firecracker: it’s shrimp tempura and avocado, topped with kanikama (crab) and a spicy tuna on top.”

The Peabody sushi bar definitely has more to offer than just the ordinary fare, and customers tend to agree, Nguyen says, as business increases steadily — a full house most evenings — and all without a liquor license, although that’s soon to change.

“We just got our full liquor license, which will be great since 90 percent of our customers have asked about it,” says Nguyen.

The city Licensing Board unanimously agreed to and the application was then sent to the state Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission. Nguyen says he’s waiting for the license to arrive any day now.

“We are building a full liquor bar on the (side) wall. Sushi and sake go hand-in-hand, so it was a little risky to open without it at first, but our sushi stands out above the rest,” he said.

You can read more about the downtown sushi bar on its website or become a fan on Facebook.

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