Sushi bar making its way downtown

David Campbell has made a name for himself in Spring-field's barbecue restaurant business, but five years after opening the first Buckingham Smokehouse Bar-B-Q he's go-ing raw.

Sushi is the food of choice this time, and Campbell is bringing it downtown to 302 E. Walnut.

Campbell plans to open Izumi Hataki Sushi Grill by Aug. 15 and will operate it with the help of two former Nakato chefs: Goran Devic and Hiro Yama-uchi. Together, they have more than 35 years of experience in creating Japanese dishes. The two chefs met Campbell when he was one of their regular customers at Nakato's.

"I'm bringing back the first sushi chef ever in Springfield," Campbell said of Yamauchi, who has been serving up sushi in Raleigh, N.C., for the past year. "Hiro's back."

Yamauchi is returning early next month to be Campbell's chef and partner at Izumi Hataki.

"It's a good opportunity," Yamauchi said in a telephone interview from Raleigh. "Most of the sushi is on the south side. There really isn't a sushi bar downtown anywhere there. It's pretty exciting."

The 1,200 square-foot-restaurant that will seat 60 people will have both a sushi bar and hibachi grill, Campbell said, plus an extensive appetizer list to "create your own meal."

Campbell said he didn't want to strictly offer sushi because he said people have a misconception about it.

"When people hear sushi they automatically think raw fish," Campbell said. "But that is kind of a misconception. Yes there is raw fish, but not everything is raw ... 60 percent of what we will serve on our menu is cooked cooked fish, cooked vegetables."

Doing the grilling, he said, is Devic, who has 20 years of experience on the hibachi grill. Devic is also the one who approached Campbell with the idea. Campbell said he had been eyeing the building, across from the Vandivort Center and owned by Springfield's Robberson family, for several years. He was just waiting for the right time.

"Downtown, I think, is ready and ripe for just about anything," he said. "Now with all of the new things coming the baseball stadium, future convention centers, the ice arena, Jordan Valley Park all of the things that are planned, five years from now downtown is going to be it' in Springfield. I really believe that. I just think the timing is right for me."

Joe Robberson, part owner of the building, said he's seen several businesses come through there in his family's 60-plus years of ownership. He agrees that the timing is good, but adds that it takes more than timing to be successful.

"He's aggressive, he's put in his time and work," Robberson said of Campbell. "I think he has the expertise of running a restaurant; he's proven that."

Other family members with ownership are Robberson's brother, Jim, and sister, Julia. He said that other restaurants have been successful there, like the Black Forest Inn, which he ran, and Spring-field's original pizza house, Napolitano's Pizzeria.

Other retail uses have been a tie shop, a tax firm and most recently, an advertising firm. Campbell took over the lease last December.

The Japanese name Campbell selected Izumi Hataki translates loosely as "Springfield." Izumi is a rolling spring, he said, and Hataki is an open field. His Japanese research also led him to the true meaning of sushi.

"The word sushi is really the marriage of the vinegar and rice that is used in sushi," he said. The su refers to vinegar in Japanese, and shi is an abbreviated term used for cooked rice.

"It happens to be one of my favorite foods," Campbell said. And that's why he's expanding from his barbecue grill meals because he likes sushi so much. "It's something I could eat every day. It's really a healthy and nutritional way to eat: low in calories, cholesterol, fat, sodium and very high in protein."

So, for those who may be pessimistic about sushi, Campbell says to just try it.

"Every day there is a new sushi customer born," he said. "People think, I'm not going to try that,' but if you get them into a sushi bar and sit down and start with the basics, just about everyone falls in love with it."