San Diego has fast-casual retailers for nearly each ethnic meals, from tacos and falafels to Korean fried hen and kebabs and gyros, however in a primary for the county, it would quickly be getting a venue specializing solely within the well-liked Japanese rice ball snack, onigiri.
Already nicely established in Northern California, Onigilly Japanese Kitchen is coming subsequent 12 months to the Westfield UTC mall, a part of an formidable Southern California growth, says its founder, Koji Kanematsu, a former laptop methods developer. He launched Onigilly (a play on the onigiri title) with a good friend a couple of years after shifting from Japan to San Francisco in 2006.
He was stunned on the time to find there have been few locations promoting his favourite childhood snack, which is a ubiquitous staple in his homeland. He has since labored exhausting to acquaint non-Japanese shoppers with what’s admittedly a really area of interest model. In so doing, he has tinkered through the years with the look and recipe of onigiri, that are balls made with frivolously salted steamed rice, wrapped in nori (seaweed), and embellished with quite a lot of savory fillings like tuna or pickled plum.
The San Francisco-based chain, which at the moment has seven areas, 4 of that are located in buying facilities, has plans to open as many as 20 to 30 retailers in Southern California, together with six or extra in San Diego. The UTC location, which can take over a poke place, ought to open by this summer season, relying on how lengthy it takes to safe metropolis permits, Kanematsu stated.
The growth, he stated, can be pushed by a franchising program, which began only a few months in the past. The first San Diego location can be overseen by father and son Aki and Kenji Iko, who first expressed curiosity within the idea three years in the past, however at the moment, there have been no plans to franchise, Kanematsu stated.
“We felt that San Diego is great for outdoor dining year-round, the weather is pretty good, and onigiri is great for eating outdoors,” he stated. “We found the location for the franchisee and negotiated a 10-year lease.”
The franchisee, he stated, will cowl the expense of constructing out the area. He estimates a typical price of $50,000 to $100,000 for present areas which might be in good situation. Onigilly venues are usually small in measurement, from 300 to 500 sq. toes.
Other Southern California mall areas which might be deliberate within the close to future embody the Del Amo Fashion Center in Torrance, the Brea Mall, Ontario Mills, and Westfield Culver City.
While many individuals is probably not accustomed to the Japanese grab-and-go snack, Kanematsu stated he believes it would catch on rapidly in San Diego, because it has on the chain’s different areas.
“We intentionally open in non-Japanese areas because we want to educate American people,” he stated. “We used to have more traditional flavors and the traditional style of the onigiri, but we couldn’t sell them, so we changed the style and recipe and made a lot of adjustments.”
For occasion, the rice snacks bought at Onigilly aren’t normal as balls however quite as triangular “sandwiches” in order that the filling is clearly seen, Kanematsu defined. Among the fillings are teriyaki hen, tempura shrimp and shitake mushrooms. While onigiri differ from sushi in that they usually don’t embody uncooked fish, there are a couple of rice snacks on the Onigilly menu which might be crammed with uncooked fish.
In a current year-end news launch, Onigilly touted its gross sales development and growing income, saying it anticipated to finish 2025 with document gross sales and double-digit site visitors development. Its San Francisco restaurant, for instance, noticed a 28% improve in site visitors, whereas the San Jose location grew 18%, and annual income averaged near $2 million per retailer, Kanematsu stated.
He acknowledged, although, that as the corporate embarks on franchising, the operators can’t count on first-year income to strategy $2 million.
“We know how to do this, but for the franchised locations, we will need to train the owners,” he stated, “so they should not expect as much at first.”