Sushi @ I Love Mr Sushi

What an odd name for a restaurant, right?

I can't think of another restaurant I've heard of that has as its name a proclamation of love towards another human.

Seattle has "I love Teriyaki" and Mexico has "weloveburgers", but those are foods, and it makes sense for both the restaurant employees and the customers to express those sentiments.

But "I love Mr Sushi"? Who's I? Do I love him? Am I IN love with him? Or does the restauranteur love him?

I had to get to the bottom of this. Today, on 5 on your side, investigative reporter Jon Eman goes deep into Google to find the answers you've be looking for since you started reading this description.

Here's what I've found:

Mr Sushi is a real live person. Yoshio Aoki was born and raised near Tokyo. He majored in Japanese and French cooking at Osaka Culinary School.

McDonalds started popping up in Japan, and he fell in love with hamburgers. He came to America, land of the burger (but not land of weloveburgers), with a singular goal: spread Japanese food culture far and wide.

He earned the name "Mr Sushi" while working at his first restaurant, a Hibachi Grill at Westport Plaza, because he was singing and telling stories while making sushi. (Nicknames were easier to come by back then. When I called the line cook at Blueberry Hill my "Burger Bro" he was not as pleased)

In a masterful stroke of off-the-charts self esteem, he started I Love Mr Sushi, ran the place for 15 years, and then went back to Japan.

No word on whether or not the current owner of I Love Mr Sushi actually loves Yoshio.

I do, though. And I don't care who knows it. I'll request with my dying breath (probably from overestimating my capacity for sushi), "tell Mr Sushi.... I love him"