Photograph by George Sakkestad
Nobo Eguchi offers a plate of California rolls plus more traditional Japanese fare at his Sushi on the Run restaurant.
By Suzanne Cristallo
Sushi on the Run, the name of a tiny Japanese restaurant in downtown Los Gatos, sounds like fast food, but its new owner has spent two-thirds of his life perfecting his culinary skills.
Thirty years ago, Nobo Eguchi left his home in Kyushu, Japan, for Osaka, where he applied for the position of chef's apprentice in a hotel restaurant. For three years, he was not allowed to prepare meals. He washed dishes.
In Japanese tradition, an apprentice must endure many years practicing all of the mundane aspects of preparing meals before he is allowed the privilege of being called chef.
Besides washing dishes, Nobo spent those three years going to the fish market, where he learned how to recognize the freshest fish by the color of their eyes and necks. He learned how to cut them.
His fourth year was spent learning how to make rice.
In his fifth year, Nobo was allowed to move up to the sushi bar, where he prepared nigiri sushi, or raw fish over rice.
In 1972, Nobo came to San Francisco, where he worked for 10 years in a restaurant before venturing into the fast-growing Sacramento Valley, where he had heard the prospects for opening his own place were good. He studied 20 different restaurant prospects before settling on one he called Tangu in the town of Cotati.
After 12 years in Cotati, Nobo read in a local Japanese newspaper about a sushi bar for sale in Los Gatos. He bought it immediately. That was nine months ago.
Today, Nobo meets his customers as he presses rice for California rolls and other Americanized versions of sushi in his tiny, shiny sushi bar on N. Santa Cruz Avenue.
His menu is simple, with some local inventions like Pat's Home Run and Mountain Mike, but traditional sushi is available for the initiated. Nobo prides himself on its freshness. After all, 30 years of giving fish the eye should make him an expert.
Sushi on the Run, 114 N. Santa Cruz Ave., Los Gatos. Lunch noon-2:30 p.m. Dinner 5-9:30 p.m.; Fri. and Sat. until 10 p.m. Closed Mon. 354-1125.
This article appeared in the Saratoga News, April 17, 1996
©1996 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.