Sushi Fuku will open its third location in UPMC Presbyterian Hospital in Oakland. According to the Allegheny County Health Department, the new Sushi Fuku was newly-permitted in April, and the sign outside the new location says "Coming in 2 Weeks." It will open on the 11th floor next to the cafeteria. The Pittsburgh Business Times profiled owner Ting Yen as its second location was under construction in 2015.
A native of Taiwan who moved to Pittsburgh when he was 13, Yen grew up in the restaurant business — his father owned restaurants such as Yen’s Gourmet in Greenfield — before studying computer science at the University of Pittsburgh, where he later pursued an MBA.
Building on his experience of running the sushi bar franchise for Giant Eagle supermarkets, Yen has been devising a system for Sushi Fuku for six years, seeing opportunity in new automated machinery for preparing seaweed and rice that is being used in Japan and Manhattan.
It’s a combination of assembly line processing paired with the traditional knife and hand-rolling skills of sushi making that's enabled Sushi Fuku to dramatically cut down on the preparation time. Yen said the added automation is the only way to to serve very high-quality sushi at an affordable price in a restaurant that also allows diners to completely customize their orders.
The success of the first Sushi Fuku has given Yen confidence to pursue expansion.
“We serve between 300 to 500 customers a day,” he said. “We’re always packed.”