CLEVELAND — Rachel Hsu may be the owner of Sushi 86, but you’ll sometimes find her on the main prep lines in the kitchen.
“I learned to roll sushi in it when my husband worked in it, and it just kinda went from there,” Hsu said.
She wears a lot of hats, moving the restaurant to a few different spots since the COVID-19 pandemic. This is her third location since 2020, and all of them have been in the Fifth Street Arcade. She said here, she has enough space for cooking for catering. She had to leave her first spot due to COVID restrictions.
“Lack of people, lack of staff that was a big thing,” Hsu said. “None of the servers were able to come back. We lost some of the kitchen people. We weren’t able to retain enough people.”
Her original 3,000-square-foot restaurant is now a bookstore.
“It was a little hard,” Hsu said. “You’re used to a lot. You got rid of a lot of stuff. I have a lot of friends that bought used restaurant equipment.”
The new spot is about 600-square-feet. She doesn’t have the staff or the volume to stay open at the larger spot. Right now it’s still serving food, but it’s mostly here for storage.
“Less rent, less overhead,” Hsu said. “We had less staff working. Save some money.”
She’s about to move out of the arcade to a location behind the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. She said there isn’t enough business here since many people are still working remotely.
“We are not getting the office crowds that we used to at all,” Hsu said. “It’s very minimal.”
As the emergency declaration ends, the ripple effects still linger. She’s hoping that eventually she won’t have to keep moving.
“It’s a little tiring,” Hsu said. “You know, but it’s do or die.”
