Japanese restaurant to open on city's north side

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A Springfield businessman is opening what he believes to be the first Japanese restaurant on the north side of town.|ret||ret||tab|

After working as a cook at Springfield Japanese restaurants since 1997, Chi Trieu is opening his own restaurant, Little Tokyo Japanese Restaurant at 1635 N. Glenstone Ave. Trieu and his family moved to the United States from Vietnam in 1991. |ret||ret||tab|

While his family moved to California, Trieu lived in North Carolina with his uncle, Quanh. It was Quanh who taught him the art of Japanese cooking.|ret||ret||tab|

Trieu worked as a chef at Jap-anese restaurants in North Carolina and South Carolina. |ret||ret||tab|

After working at Nakato Jap-anese Restaurant in South Carolina, he transferred in Sep-tember 1997 to work at Spring-field's Nakato.|ret||ret||tab|

After working at Nakato and Fuji, he decided to open his own restaurant.|ret||ret||tab|

Trieu is renting the building from Anne Miles, a Springfield developer and owner of Miles Properties Management LLC. She also owns the building next door to Little Tokyo which is occupied by Pizza Inn. The two businesses share adjoining parking lots.|ret||ret||tab|

The lease was signed in Feb-ruary and remodeling work began soon after. Lenny's Blues and Barbeque previously occupied the building.|ret||ret||tab|

Trieu put in new tables and chairs, new flooring in the kitchen and along with new waiting and smoking areas for customers. Japanese lanterns hang from the ceiling.|ret||ret||tab|

Customers at Little Tokyo can see Trieu, or one of the other chefs, preparing meals on the grill. "We'll offer high-quality food," he said. The prices will be the same all day; I won't charge more for a meal at dinner."|ret||ret||tab|

Trieu said Springfield is a "very good place to live. When I was cooking at Nakato and Fuji, people were nice and it was easy to make them happy."|ret||ret||tab|

Prices at Little Tokyo range from $1.25 for miso, or clear soup, to $10.99 for the teriyaki seafood combo: shrimp, scallops and broccoli with teriyaki sauce.|ret||ret||tab|

The restaurant is scheduled to open by the end of April. Its hours will be 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Sunday.[[In-content Ad]]