Shig Chiba took over the restaurant bearing his surname “a long time ago.” Located in North Hollywood, Chiba Sushi restaurant was started by his late father in 1973, the year that Shig Chiba turned 11 and had just come from Japan with his family. He would later return to the country to train as a sushi chef. Prices at Chiba range from $3.50 for an appetizer up to $30 to $40 for deluxe dinners and sashimi. Customers seem to like the restaurant and how Shig Chiba operates it, as the review site Yelp gives Chiba a ranking of 4.5 out of 5 stars based on more than 600 reviews.
Question: What inspired you to start your business?Answer: My parents opened the restaurant back in 1973. I took over the business in 1986. We’re right near the corner of Saticoy and Lankershim.
Do you like being your own boss? Do you ever think about trading it for a steady paycheck?No, I don’t know anything else. That would be a challenge if I had to.
What’s the best aspect of running your own business?You are able to help others. And you get to work with everybody together in cool places.
And the worst?I really cannot complain about owning my own business. It’s a really long day and you have to work all the time, but it’s all I know. I have nothing to complain about.
What’s the biggest challenge your business has faced? And how did you deal with it?The pandemic. I dealt with it where I kept most of my guys working. I promoted a lot of take-out. That was pretty hard. But now it is all over and is all in the past.
What’s your favorite story about running your business?I have a lot. I meet a lot of cool people. Being here in North Hollywood, I got to meet some musicians. We have been in business here for almost 50 years and there is a lot interesting stories but I cannot pick out one. It’s been a good journey. The people around us are really nice and I was blessed with nice people. I could not have done it without them.
Has being Asian affected your business?I don’t think so. No, not at all.
How has the pandemic affected you and your business? It affected it in good ways and bad ways. In terms of looking at the business from the side, I learned a lot from it. It wasn’t easy to change everything from a dine-in restaurant to mostly take-out. That was interesting. I got a lot of people saying, “Thanks for being open.” Where I should be saying “Thanks for coming out, and I am sorry that there is only delivery and take-out.” Even young people, like teenagers, would come in to pick up food and thank me for being open.
What advice would you give someone who wanted to start their own business?Just work hard. If you want to be successful, don’t be sleeping eight hours a day. If you make the hard decisions, you don’t sleep for two years, three years. … And don’t look back.
– Mark R. Madler
For Sushi Chef, ‘It’s a Really Long Day’
