POCATELLO — The Gate City’s first sushi restaurant is permanently closing after nearly 15 years in business.

Sumisu first opened in the fall of 2010, stepping into a mostly uncharted area of food in Southeast Idaho. Taking a chance in helping finance his brother’s vision to open a sushi restaurant in Pocatello, owners Kim Smith and his wife Dana embarked on what would become a decade-plus journey that earned Sumisu a reputation for quality ingredients, incredible chefs and great food in a very comfortable and relaxed setting.

The risk paid off and Sumisu became recognized as not only a fantastic restaurant at 309 E. Center St. in Historic Downtown Pocatello but also a place to go for an incredible sushi experience for anyone visiting Idaho.

Sumisu, the Japanese pronunciation for the name Smith, will remain open until May 3, its last day in business.

Its closure will mark the end of an era of sorts and a demise caused in large part by a global pandemic that shuttered thousands of restaurants across the U.S.

For years Sumisu thrived under impactful chefs like Daniel Russo and Justin Pehrson, who were largely responsible for the inventive creations on the menu and were both known for their own distinct styles and flavors that they brought to their dishes. The restaurant maintained its high-quality food and the service its patrons were accustomed to for years until the COVID pandemic hit, which caused an eventual decline in profitability.

“We took a pretty big hit during COVID just being shut down for a while,” said Kim Smith. “We were actually doing very well before COVID came and since then, we’ve struggled some. When we first opened, we were the only sushi restaurant in town, so it was kind of a new thing for Pocatello (and) there was a lot more interest in it. But there’s quite a few places you can get it now, including grocery stores and everything else. Then through COVID, we kind of struggled and then opened back up. One of our main chefs went and he took another job and my brother became a truck driver. A few other things happened and it just became a bigger challenge to keep it going.”

Maintaining a consistent level of quality and a trained staff were also a challenge, as veteran sushi chefs would occasionally depart and their apprentices would have to quickly try to fill their shoes. The restaurant employs around 18 to 23 workers, including wait staff, line cooks, sushi chefs and others.

“You’ve got a regular kitchen, basically, and then you’ve got sushi chefs that are making the sushi itself,” Kim Smith said. “They’re supported by staff that are frying and cooking and there are other parts to it, so it’s a team effort. You can’t be just a sushi roller only because there’s other parts to it that go into making the parts of the product. Just to become a sushi chef that can roll and put it together and have it presentable, that takes a long time. It’s not a quick learn.”

He continued, “We’re very appreciative to all the patrons and all the people that have worked at Sumisu and did a lot of good hard work and made it happen. They put their heart into it and made it go. It’s a tribute to all of them for the hard work they did putting it together. I’m grateful to every one of them in their own unique ways that they helped us out.”

Other challenges for Sumisu included the inherent nature of running a quality sushi restaurant — the monetary connection to ordering fresh ingredients that often need to be flown in or expedited to the business, the new and inventive aspects of the ingredients and the overhead cost of running the restaurant.

“We started with this model of sit-down service, which requires more people, and then we jumped into making food that is expensive and difficult to make,” Kim Smith said. “There are sushi chefs in Japan that spend years learning how to cook rice. So that’s why we had the fusion on there. I think our sushi is very good but it’s difficult to make and the ingredients are expensive. It’s not like flipping a hamburger or something like that. There’s a standard that a lot of people say, ‘I’ve had sushi and this is what it should taste or be like’ and that’s the challenge to keep on that and keep it going. I think our food product has been great but escalating costs of labor and food have brought us to a challenging crossroads.”

Part of that difficult crossroads is bidding a fond adieu to Sumisu and letting another business owner take up the mantle and bring his or her own vision to life. The Smiths will be selling the building and potentially selling off the other portions of the business piecemeal, depending on the level of interest from potential buyers. Both owners are also busy with other primary jobs, such as Kim’s work as a dentist, and feel as if they don’t often have the time to fully commit to the restaurant.

“We’d love to sell it,” Kim Smith said. “Our hope is that another restaurant of whatever flavor can go in there and continue to use what we’ve got there. It’s a part of town where it’s kind of a happening place at night. It’s (near) a bar area of town, but there’s a lot of things happening at night and it’s in an eclectic, nice neighborhood and we enjoyed that part. We hope somebody else can pick up the reins and keep it going because the bones itself are pretty good as a restaurant space.”

Like many in the community, Kim Smith feels a level of melancholy in parting with the restaurant, relaying the difficulty hearing from many of his devoted customers how much they will miss Sumisu.

“We’re super grateful for everyone’s patronage,” he said. “We feel like they embraced it and it was a bit of a new thing when we started, but I think it’s a little more commonplace in a lot of people’s palettes now and I hope that that they’ll continue to give patronage to the other sushi makers in town. We’re grateful for the way the community embraced our thoughts and our ideas and helped it to come to fruition. It’s hard to start a restaurant from scratch and especially where you take other cultures’ ideas in how they present their cuisine. I think those are some challenging parts and we really couldn’t have done it without the Pocatello community embracing it and giving us a chance and saying, ‘I’ll give it a try’. I think over time it showed that we were able to pull it off in a reasonable way and that people could really enjoy coming there. It’s definitely a part of my heart and we had a lot of great memories there.”