Meet Your Merchant: Kim Lee's Sushi opens up in Dayton - with surprising quality, guests say

DAYTON - The first thought Joe Zachary had when her son brought her to Kim Lee's Sushi in Dayton: "Scary."

But after?

"It was delicious," Zachary, who splits her time between Northern Nevada and Orlando, Fla., said after sharing the same compliment to the chef. "I will be coming back here."

Her son, Jessy Cox of Fallon, said it was good to find a solid sushi spot in Dayton, even if the town's population was shy of 9,000 in the 2010 census.

"Good is good when it comes to sushi," he said. "It's nice to find a good sushi place in a small place like this."

Manager Paul J. Bloomfield said the positive reactions have been nonstop since the eatery opened off of Highway 50 three months ago.

"The positive feedback out here is insane," he said. "So we're enjoying it; we're going to keep rolling with it."

Bloomfield, who also manages the just-opened Yerington location and the still-to-be-scouted Fernley and Fallon locations, said the decision to open up in Dayton came after a polling of the business's customers in Carson City - a good number would commute in from Dayton, he said.

So they opened up shop and have been making headway, he said. They already have regulars, and folks know him and the primary chef, a 36-year veteran of the sushi knife, by name.

Bloomfield said he got involved in sushi only seven months ago after a stint with hotels left him hankering to get back into the food industry, where he had 15 years of management experience. He caught on quickly, he said, developing his own signature roll after only a month.

It's a different kind of food preparation experience, he said - you're putting on a show while making food that needs to look and taste good. But the face-to-face with customers also gives its own reward versus back-in-the-kitchen cooking.

"Here, you get someone saying, 'Oh, this is the best roll I've ever had,'" while you're standing right there, he said. "It's instant gratification."

Sushi's been gaining popularity in general, he said, though its years of constantly gaining steam breaks it out of the category of being just another trend. He noted that sushi's healthy qualities help its cause - he personally lost 47 pounds by replacing his fast-food habits with sushi.