How One Night Changed Everything

In 1984, I had sushi for the first time at a little spot in San Francisco called Sushi Boat. I didn’t know what to expect—sushi wasn’t a big thing back then. But something about that night stuck with me. The flavors, the freshness, the entire experience—it lit a fire I didn’t see coming.

From that moment on, I was hooked. I spent the next several years exploring sushi restaurants across California, trying everything I could get my hands on. It became more than just food—it was a passion.

In 1993, I came back to Tulsa. And one thing became clear pretty fast: there was nothing here like the sushi I’d fallen in love with on the West Coast. That idea stuck with me, until one day in 1997, I decided to do something about it.

I didn’t come from a culinary background. I just knew what good sushi tasted like. So I rolled up my sleeves—literally—and started teaching myself how to make it. I spent six months learning the basics, then perfecting the details: the rice, the cuts, the rolls, the rhythm. It was a grind, but I loved it.

Then came the next big step—finding the right place. Thanks to some help from my dad’s old college friends, we found a spot in Brookside that had once been Dunwell Cleaners. It had potential, and we jumped on it.

That building became the home of in the raw.

We didn’t know how Tulsa would respond. Sushi wasn’t exactly mainstream here yet. But the goal was simple: bring a piece of California to the Midwest—fresh, laid-back, bold. And people got it.

What started as a personal obsession turned into something much bigger. And it all began with one unexpected night in San Francisco.

When I met Ashley in 2016, having been open for 15 years, she brought the fresh perspective and energy we were needing to keep taking the restaurants to the next level. With her degree in events and hospitality and background in the catering industry, we shared the same passions but from a different set of eyes and I was fortunate to tap into her wealth of knowledge as well as her keen eye for detail and love for design. Together, we opened in the raw vū in 2020 mid-pandemic and continue to ride this crazy wave of the restaurant industry together hand in hand.

-Greg