After chef and restaurateur Jeff Osaka opened Sushi-Rama’s first restaurant in RiNo in 2015, “we grew pretty quickly,” he said, “maybe with less experience than what was required.”
Osaka opened four more Sushi-Ramas in the Denver Tech Center and Lone Tree in 2018, Aurora in 2019 and Broomfield in 2022.
On Valentine’s Day, Osaka closed the Aurora location, 13650 E. Colfax Ave., and on Friday, March 8, he’ll close the other three suburban stores. The original Sushi-Rama and Osaka Ramen, at 2615 Larimer St., in the River North Art District, will remain open.
“It comes down to the usual suspects,” Osaka said. “The cost of doing business is expensive from food costs to labor costs, on top of playing catch up for the last three years after COVID. We just decided that the effort we were putting into didn’t make sense with our return on investment, which was barely getting us by.”
Sushi-Rama is known for its retro atmosphere and conveyor-belt system that delivers fresh sushi directly to tables. Osaka said he doesn’t regret expanding to the suburbs, especially since “rent was less expensive out of Denver county.” He added that business in DTC, Lone Tree and Aurora was great up until 2020, and “who would have guessed COVID would come around?”
Osaka is looking to sell the leases for each of his four suburban locations, and he’s hoping to find restaurant jobs elsewhere for his 80 employees. For now, he wants to “get a secure footing” and focus on his sole Sushi-Rama and Osaka Ramen restaurants in RiNo, which he said have the smallest footprint and see a lot more foot traffic.
Sushi-Rama is joining a list of other restaurant closures this month, mostly in downtown Denver, including Avelina, Three Saints Revival and New Saigon Restaurant.
“Customers are being selective about where they spend their dollars,” Osaka said. “On top of that, being able to live and work in Denver in our industry is a challenge. People are moving to the suburbs or out of state. Denver is expensive, and I’m saying that as someone from L.A.”
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