Sushi restaurant literally rises from the ashes in Springettsbury
UPDATE: Oyako Sushi will open their doors on Oct. 4.
Previously Reported
The Chinese word that Chunsheng Li used to describe the feeling of reopening his restaurant doesn’t translate perfectly into English.
Li is the owner and chef at Oyako Sushi.
Early on a Sunday morning in May, fire damaged the kitchen and forced the business to close.
“I didn’t know how to handle that,” Li said through an interpreter. “One day, I’m cooking food here. The next day, there’s a fire.”
Li and his wife, Qin Lin, moved from Fujian, China, in the mid-1990s. Upon arriving in the United States, he worked at several restaurants with the goal of one day opening his own shop.
That goal was achieved in September 2012 when Li opened Okayo Sushi at 3619 E. Market St. in Springettsbury Township.
Upon seeing all the damage the fire caused, Li wasn’t sure what to do, but he received words of advice from his pastor, Daniel Luo.
“I always encouraged him that a bad thing happened, but if you look at it from a different angle, you can see the blessings,” said Luo, a pastor at the Chinese Bible Church of Lancaster who acts as Li’s translator.
The restaurant sustained smoke, water and fire damage in the kitchen and smoke damage in the dining area.
Despite the hardship, Li had a new goal — reopen the restaurant.
After the restaurant was cleared for work, Li began rebuilding and cleaning. He painted smoke-damaged ceiling tiles, replaced carpets and cleaned the entire kitchen.
“They’re hard workers,” Luo said of Li and Lin. “They’re usually (in the restaurant) from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.”
Li weathered the storm financially through insurance, but most importantly, he survived emotionally with the prayers of his church.
"He contacted me and asked me to pray for him," Luo said. "He asked some of the church people... to help him through the process."
With most of the labor done, customers have been calling the restaurant requesting a reopening date.
Li recently hung a sign on Okayo’s glass front door that read “Coming Soon.” Now, several yellow Post-It Notes underneath the sign of the door spell out "When?", placed there by a hopeful customer.
Okayo’s reopening will occur after the health inspection expected in the next few weeks, Li said.
He's excited to get back behind the counter and make his favorite dish, the Thanksgiving Roll, a sushi roll with fried shrimp and avocado topped with eel.
As he sat at a table in Okayo, Li described his thoughts of the restaurant’s reopening with the Chinese word qinque — which loosely translates to “fulfilled.”
“In the beginning, I didn’t know how to handle it,” Li said. “Now, I feel like I have more strength to do better business here.”
Anthony J. Machcinski is the Food and Drink reporter for the York Daily Record and FlipSidePA. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter, or email him at amachcinski@ydr.com.