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Husband-and-wife team Jenny and Michael Cho operate the restaurant venture.
Cynthia Reeves | SBJ
Husband-and-wife team Jenny and Michael Cho operate the restaurant venture.

Craft Sushi adds south-side shop

Posted online

Four years after making its Queen City debut, a customizable sushi roll and poke bowl restaurant has added a second location.

Craft Sushi co-owner Michael Cho said today is the official launch for the eatery’s south-side shop at 1282 E. Republic Road following a soft opening over the Fourth of July weekend. Cho said supply chain and construction delays pushed back the opening date, originally targeted for the spring, according to past Springfield Business Journal reporting.

“When this unit presented itself and we were able to negotiate a lease, we decided to go for it,” he said, declining to disclose startup costs or lease terms with landlord Twin Oaks Market Place LLC.

The shop fills roughly 2,000 square feet near CoxHealth at the intersection of Republic Road and National Avenue in a space formerly occupied by Jax and Gabe’s Pizzeria, which closed in 2019. The first Craft Sushi at 1251 E. Sunshine St., Ste. 116, also is close to a health care system. The restaurant is in a retail and office center across from Mercy Hospital Springfield.

“I really wanted to be somewhere near the Cox corridor,” Cho said of the second shop. “It was a conscious decision when we first opened to be near Mercy Hospital.”

Cho said his wife, Jenny, who co-owns Craft Sushi, oversees the Republic Road store, which employs 18. He added his professional focus is now full time on the restaurants, noting he exited Hickory Hills Country Club, where he worked as its director of hospitality, in March.

“They can expect the same menu, same offerings,” Cho said of the new store, which offers build-your-own sushi rolls or poke bowls with protein options such as spicy pork, beef, tofu, salmon or veggies with additional add-ons and sauces.

Craft Sushi sources most of its ingredients locally, Cho said, noting vendors include Springfield-based Urban Roots Farm LLC and Tecumseh-based Willow Mountain Mushrooms, as well as from the Farmers Market of the Ozarks and Greater Springfield Farmers Market. He said plans are to expand the vendor roster.

Even though its second store just opened, Cho said he has his sights set on growing the company’s footprint beyond Springfield. No plans are in motion, but he said Republic, Nixa, Ozark, Kansas City, northwest Arkansas and Tulsa, Oklahoma, all are areas under consideration for future Craft Sushi restaurants.

“This location will need to do well for us,” he said regarding steps toward additional expansion. “I feel we learned a lot with our first location, and we’ll learn a lot more with our second.”

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