Its last day is Saturday, February 25.
"I love that little town," Osaka says of Louisville."You just feel safe walking down the street. ... It's like a warm sweater or a cozy blanket." But when he stepped in as a"caretaker" for the Empire, as he describes his role, he encountered a series of challenges.
"Sales came to a halt," Osaka recalls. The Empire remained shuttered until restaurants were able to reopen for indoor dining, but capacity and table-spacing restrictions at the time cut the number of seats from 185 to just 75. Then the Marshall Fire on December 30, 2021, forced another closure when the restaurant's water had to be shut off while it was tested for contamination.
Last year, as Osaka focused on the construction of his fifth Sushi Rama location in Broomfield, he slowly began transitioning out of the Empire, handing it over to a chef. That new partner"walked into a challenging situation," Osaka admits, particularly when it came to staffing.
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