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.
{ 1 comment }