Tiger Sushi owner Lisa Edevold and General Manager Holly Besinger

Tiger Sushi is owned by Lisa Edevold and is one of the few local businesses in the Mall of America that has truly flourished. The seven-year-old sushi bar is tucked inside an elegant, gazebo-style glass room within sight of Nordstrom. It has the advantage of being in the fray of foot traffic and cozy when it’s packed. “There’s something about the size of this place that makes people crowd together,” Edevold said. “It’s like going to a house party and everybody crowds around the kitchen.”

What led you to the idea of opening a sushi bar in the Mall of America?

I had never really shopped in the Mall of America. I’d always go to Nordstrom and leave. One night, I was getting ready to go on a trip so I was in Nordstrom to pick up some things and I wanted to get some sushi with my boyfriend. I figured, this is the Mall of America and they must have sushi somewhere in here. For the first time, I went into the mall and looked but there was no sushi bar. You couldn’t get sushi in the Mall of America in 2003. Over the next couple of days I couldn’t stop thinking about. I thought I must be missing something big. I bounced the ideas off of a few friends and they said it wouldn’t work because the mall wasn’t a savvy, cosmopolitan place.

You decided to pursue it anyway?

I pitched the idea (to the mall management) and they thought I was a little nuts at first. They took me on a walk through the mall and showed me all the spaces that were available. They wanted to put me in the inline stores and we literally walked right through this space. It was just a bunch of columns shaped in a circle. I grabbed the guy by the  shirt and said, “What about this right here?” They tried to talk me out of it but I knew it was great. It was overlooking three floors so everyone would see it as they walked by. They finally agreed and we worked out an arrangement.

Has being in the Mall of America been good or bad?

Everyone assumes that we have these all over the country. In a way, it’s kind of a compliment. My favorite compliment is when people come in here and say they feel like they aren’t in a huge shopping mall — it’s like a little oasis. It has this energy and a cooky, comfortable vibe that people are attracted to.

What led you to start another Tiger Sushi in Uptown?

My husband is a real estate developer and he was able to develop this piece of property right on Lyndale Avenue. It just turned into such a cool building. One day he came to me and said jokingly, “I found the home for the next Tiger Sushi.” We kind of thought about it a little more and pretty soon it was kind of obvious. We literally had the architects design the entire building around that restaurant. It’s an amazing space. It’s three walls of floor-to-ceiling glass. It sits right on the greenway which, in the summertime, is kind of the highway of beautiful bikers and inline skaters.

What’s the most popular sushi you have?

I would say the Winter Roll is everybody’s favorite. I don’t care who you are, the Winter Roll will make you happy. It’s kind of unfortunate because the name isn’t quite sexy enough for it. We call it the Winter Roll because it has crunchy flakes on it that look like snow.

Do you have any goals this year or further down the road?

This location is working well. The new restaurant is in that first-year stage where we’re working out the all the problems and trying to get it all to gel. It takes about a year. My goal is get Tiger Sushi 2 running as smoothly as the mall here.

What sets you apart from other sushi bars?

You just asked my favorite question. In my opinion, there’s a whole spectrum of sushi places. Most of sushi is trying to be traditional, Japanese sushi. Japanese sushi is very simple, elegant, and artistic. Now, you take someone like Wolfgang Puck and his pizza. He puts all kinds of crazy stuff on it like barbecue chicken and artichokes. Well, we’re like the Wolfgang Puck of sushi. If you want traditional, you can go to places like Origami. If you want bold, in-your-face and creative, you can find us. It’s homemade here at Tiger Sushi. We’re definitely fusion in a good way. We bring the best of all these different cultures into this wonderful artform of Japanese sushi.

For some of the readers here, what can the first-time visitors expect?

Everyone that works here is very able and very willing to create the perfect first-time experience. We want to be the enlighteners. We’re not off-putting or snobby. Sushi virgins are our favorite. There is an energy here and first-timers get sucked into it.

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Interview with Thomas Goetz about his book, The Decision Tree

02.24.2010

Thomas Goetz is the executive editor of WIRED magazine and the author of The Decision Tree. His new book explores the future of personalized medicine. Technology is changing every industry faster than anyone could have imagined, and healthcare is no exception. “Our information is currency, but with the advent of electronic health records and technology,” Goetz said. “This currency suddenly has a marketplace and we can use it.”

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Interview with Cheni Yerushalmi from Sunshine Suites

02.22.2010

Cheni Yerushalmi started Sunshines Suites in 2001 with co-founder, Joe Raby. With two locations in the heart of New York City, Yerushalmi describes it as a “lifestyle for entrepreneurs.” Sunshine is much more than an office space — it’s the future of working for startups and small businesses. Among their many benefits, the most valuable one is being a part of their community. It’s also the home of smart, fresh companies like VaynerMedia. “You’ve got people like Gary Vaynerchuk walking through the halls and you can ask him questions,” Yerushalmi said. “Not many office spaces can say that.”

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2/22: KILLER week on CMTY!

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I’m thrilled to say that CMTY is expanding at an alarming rate. I don’t know where it’s going but I can’t wait to see. I started this blog covering local businesses in the Twin Cities and the response has been tremendous. Both of the guests this week are located out of the State. In fact, [...]

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Asking The Right “Why”

02.18.2010

I like to describe myself as chronically curious. I simply ask too many questions. I do not tire of listening to people share their ideas as long as they’re passionate and not selling.
One of the most important questions during a project or brainstorming session is “Why.” The way I see it is: There are two [...]

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Row27 Studios is taking mobile apps and sports to a new level

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Founders Jason Cole and Jonathan Dusing wasted no time with row27 Studios. They began doing mostly video post production and quickly secured national sports clients around the country. Keeping stride, they jumped right into the iPhone app gold rush to appease sports junkies. Seeing the potential of the App Store, they created a separate company [...]

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CMTY Week of 2/15

02.16.2010

I know It’s Tuesday and this post should have come out on a few days before…But it was Valentines Day weekend, in case you forgot. You shouldn’t have been on my site during that time anyway.
2/15 – Luke Harper, owner of Audio Altimeter
So. In case you missed it, I had a hilarious and awesome interview [...]

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Audio Altimeter’s Luke Harper

02.15.2010

Despite the odds, Audio Altimeter owner Luke Harper opened his recording studio over 2 years ago in downtown Minneapolis and hasn’t looked back. Of course he makes music but being savvy is what keeps his business growing. A large portion of his business comes from voice-over and post production. Naturally, we recorded this interview and [...]

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CoCo: For The 2010 Freelancer And Creative Refugees

02.11.2010

(Part of this interview was done over email.)
On the surface, CoCo is a co-working space somewhere between an office and a coffee shop — And yet, it’s so much more. Owners Don Ball and Kyle Coolbroth describe it as an entirely new way to think about working. CoCo opened it’s doors at the beginning of [...]

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Edward Boches Splashes Fresh Ideas At MIMA’s CATFOA

02.09.2010

Despite being a cold, snowy Monday, Minneapolis next-gen web geeks rolled down to the Fine Line to hear Ad Vet, Edward Boches Talk at MIMA’s CATFOA.
CATFOA stands for Conversations About The Future Of Advertising — and it was indeed. Boches gave a wonderful presentation that included a few unexpected twists. “The future of advertising is [...]

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