Business

Koji Watanabe, The Pop-Up Sushi Man About Town

September 02, 2015, 3:19 PM by  Allan Lengel


Koji Watanabe

Koji Watanabe is truly the pop-up Sushi Man.

Throughout the week, Monday through Friday, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., the man of good  humor, pops up in different cafeterias around Metro Detroit, bringing with him a couple sushi chefs. He supervises the chefs, making sure customers get what they want.

You almost need a GPS to keep tabs of his movements during the week.

On Monday, for example, he's at Con-way Freight headquarters in Ann Arbor, and sends another crew to Ford  IT in Dearborn. Tuesdays, he sells his sushi out of a cafeteria in downtown in the One Detroit Center office building at 500 Woodward Avenue. On Wednesdays, he sends a crew to the Chrysler IT building in Auburn Hills and works out of the Watson Office Building on Northwestern Highway in Southfield. On Thursdays, his company is at the American Center in Southfield and the DTE building in downtown Detroit. On Fridays, he's at Toyota's tech center in Ann Arbor.

In all, he says he has about eight employees, some full time, some part time. They also help with catering that has included such venues as the Franklin Hills Country Club, the Townsend Hotel in Birmingham and the Westin Book Cadillac in downtown Detroit. 

A native of Japan who migrated to the states in 1964, Watanabe knows the restaurant business.

For nine years, he says he was the manager of eight Kyoto restaurants in Michigan, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Canada. In 1985, he opened his own Sushi/Japanese restaurant in the Southfield 2000 Town Center called Musashi. In 2010, he shut it down and started catering and doing the pop-up sushi thing.  He uses the name Musashi for his company.    

He's built up a loyal following.

On Tuesday, at the One Detroit Center building on Woodward, one of the regulars included Dynia Abraham, who works in the nearby Coleman A. Young Municipal Building. She  describes the sushi as "very fresh" and tasty.  Connie Cessante, an attorney who works in the building, says she "loves the seaweed salad."

Watanabe said he prefers bouncing around rather than being tethered to a restaurant. 

"This is easier than running your own restaurant," he says. "With the restaurant, I never had a day off; Mothers' Day, Christmas. Now, I get a day off."

To keep tabs of Watanabe, you can call him at: 248.943.3399 or email him: kojiw@musashicatering.com



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