Sushi is the newest addition to the Memorial Union Market for students fishing for a healthy alternative.
The Southern Tsunami sushi bar, which opened for business Thursday, serves a variety of sushi, including vegetarian, spicy, California and specialty rolls, and it also provides party trays with several sushi combinations.
At Southern Tsunami customers can order sushi from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. or pick up pre-made sushi from a cooler until 9 p.m.
Sodexho, which manages most of the food businesses in the MU, signed a yearlong contract with Advanced Fresh Concepts Corp., which manages 1,000 Southern Tsunami sushi bars across the country.
"Market research on customers suggests that sushi rates highly as do Asian foods and fresh foods," said Ben Hartley, general manager for Sodexho. "Adding Southern Tsunami was the natural thing to do."
Hartley expects Southern Tsunami will bring in about $3,000 a week and $50,000 in total for the semester. Sodexho itself generates nearly $9 million in revenue annually.
According to Hartley, Pretzel Mania, a pretzel shop that previously occupied Southern Tsunami present location, had declining sales, and Sodexho wanted "something to better match customer needs."
Hartley said Southern Tsunami had to wait on several health inspections before it began operating.
"A health inspector had to strictly look it over because of the issues with raw fish," Hartley said. "The raw fish issue shouldn't come up, unless students don't realize that they can't carry it around in their backpacks all day."
Despite lengthy health inspections, Hartley said he thinks the sushi bar will be very popular, especially among dorm residents because it offers party trays.
"I think it's a great improvement because it makes the food selection more diverse," said studio art sophomore Ashley Kemper.
According to regional manager Rick Mayshiro, Southern Tsunami's first day was a busy one.
"We can't keep it stocked," he said.
Hartley also said Southern Tsunami might be incorporated into an expansion plan for the MU. He added that ASU has plans to renovate and expand the MU into the Union Square cafeteria.
"We hope to combine [Southern Tsunami] in the Union Square with an Asian concept," Hartley said.
Along with Asian fare in the proposed expansion of the MU, Sodexho is also looking at Southwestern and Italian cuisine, "possibly something similar to Wolfgang Puck's," he said.
Reach the reporter at sarah.muench@asu.edu.
