The Story of Fuji Kim’s Sushi & Grill

Today on Trade Local, Andy Kim tells us all about his family’s restaurant, Fuji Kim’s.

Welcome to another edition of Trade Local, brought to you by the Chad Raney Team and Keller Williams. Our Trade Local series is here to bring your awareness to local businesses. 

Today, we’re talking to Andy Kim from Fuji Kim’s Sushi and Grill. The Kim family came here from South Korea and became American citizens. They are a great family who has had a lot of triumph and some tragedies throughout the years. Through it all, they have become a closer family and built a great business here in town based on great relationships, great service, and great food. 

So, what’s the history behind Fuji Kim’s? 

Andy is the manager at Fuji Kim’s. “I was born and raised in Seoul, and we came to the U.S. about 18 years ago, when I was 11 years old. The first city we moved to was Nashville, AR. My parents had a job in Texarkana as servers, so they commuted back and forth every single day.” 

Andy’s family decided to move to Texarkana to cut down on the commute, and they have been here for about 17 years.

“We’ve been in the restaurant business ever since we moved to the states,” says Andy. “My parents worked very hard for all this time and I wanted to help out, so when I turned 16, I started working in the restaurant business and haven’t stopped.”

Andy’s family worked at a local Japanese restaurant for six or seven years when tragedy struck. “We lost my sister in a car accident,” says Andy. “It was hard for a long time. One of the dreams she always had was to open our own restaurant, so we decided to open Fuji Kim’s to honor her memory. So that’s how this came about. It’s not just a restaurant for us; it’s everything, really.” 

Andy’s family opened Fuji Kim’s to honor his sister’s memory.

Choosing a name was a little difficult. “We couldn’t think of a name that was somewhat Japanese-related, so we thought, ‘What is the most Japanese word we could think of?’ And we remembered Fuji, like Mount Fuji,” Andy explains. “So we chose that and added our last name at the end. We wanted to put our name out there so it represents us because it’s our restaurant. That’s how the name came about.”

Fuji Kim’s is a Japanese restaurant, but Andy says, “Since we are Koreans, we like to incorporate Korean flavor into our food. So we serve sushi and grilled entrees, but we also serve Korean barbecue. We are the only ones who serve it in town.” 

Andy goes on, saying, “Our most popular item is the fried rice. We go through about 1,900 pounds of rice every two weeks, and most of that goes into the fried rice. Then we have our sushi. Some people call it traditional, but I don’t want to call it traditional because I’m not Japanese and it’s our own style of sushi. A lot of people like it. We’ve been voted the No. 1 Asian/sushi restaurant in the area many times over the past decade, so I think people like it very much.” 

Fuji Kim’s is located at 2830 Richmond Road and is open Monday through Saturday. Monday through Thursday, the restaurant is open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. On Friday and Saturday, the restaurant is open from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Since it’s a family restaurant, they get to choose which holidays to close for; usually, though, they only close for the Fourth of July, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. 

Andy would like to take a moment to thank their customers. “Without them, we wouldn’t be here. I wouldn’t be able to have what I have, and we’re definitely blessed to have a good customer base. Because of them, we get to open up a scholarship at Texarkana College under my sister’s name every semester. I have incredible customers and I want to thank every single one of them, I really do.” 

Fuji Kim’s has been a personal favorite of mine for many years. It’s a great place to gather with family and friends to enjoy some delicious food. If you have any questions for Andy, you can reach him at (903) 334-6903. 

As always, if you have any questions for me, just give me a call or send me an email. Let me know if you would like your business to be featured on Trade Local, too. I look forward to hearing from you!

Let Us Help You Sell Your Home

We treat each of our clients with the utmost importance. When we do, good things happen. Just ask Denise.

A few months ago, I got a call from a woman named Denise on a Sunday afternoon. She had lived in her home for 17 years and finally decided that it was time to downsize after her daughter had left home.

We went to meet with Denise and listened to what her goals were. Based on this, we designed a detailed plain and let her know exactly what she needed to do. We gave her a list of homework and checked back in after a few months. She hadn’t quite done everything we talked about, but we weren’t discouraged. Instead, we got one of our great listing agents, Melanie, to help out.

She did a fabulous job working directly with Denise. She helped her declutter the entire house by setting up a garage sale to do most of the decluttering for them. They ended up raising enough money from the garage sale to cover Melanie’s commission, so she essentially paid for herself. 

We’d love to help you find the same success.

The house was in great shape, but it needed a bit of decluttering and organization. Once we took care of that, and ramped up the curb appeal by repainting the shutters and door, we were ready to put it on the market.

Denise’s home ended up selling in less than a week and as you can see in the video above, she could not have been happier. When asked to use one word to describe her experience with us, she simply replied “phenomenal.”

We were so happy to be able to help Denise. We’d love to help you or someone you know have the same type of success in selling their home. If you want to sell, if you don’t know where to start, or if you simply have a question or two, reach out to us by phone or email. We’d be happy to help.

One of the Best Restaurants in Texarkana

Hopkins Ice House is a Texarkana staple. Their dedication to fresh ingredients and innovative recipes are just a few of the reasons people love coming here.

I’m back with another episode of Trade Local. This series gives you a chance to get to know the people behind some of the businesses in our community. Today we are at Hopkins Ice House with George Dodson and Dave Jones to talk about their history, their menu, and much more.

Hopkins Ice House began in 2007 with their first location downtown at 301 E 3rd St. George and Dave actually met through flipping real estate, and I actually found them the property that eventually turned into that downtown location. For their first 18 months, they were on a shoestring budget. They did all the work themselves, including demoing the building, cutting the sheetrock, and cutting the concrete. 

Once the restaurant finally opened, it was an instant hit. A lot of that has to do with their philosophy of having fresh, made-from-scratch food. 

The menu is both appetizing and unique.

From sandwiches to pizza and burgers to chicken, everything is made from scratch daily. When they say fresh, they mean it. They cut their own fries, fry their own potato and tortilla chips, and don’t cut open the avocados to make their house guacamole until you order it. Some of their most popular items include their fried fish, which is considered by many as the best in town. 

The menu is both appetizing and unique. For example, their Newton pizza might sound a little odd once you hear it has cucumber and avocado on it, but the gorgonzola cheese cream sauce they use as a base marries all of those flavors perfectly together.

In addition to a full kitchen, Hopkins Ice House also has a full bar. This includes more than a dozen beers on tap and more than 50 bottled beers. You can relax inside and watch the game, or take a seat outside on the patio and enjoy the weather. 

Due to the success of their downtown location, Dave and George have now opened a second location at 4030 Gibson Lane, right off Richmond Rd. Stop in sometime and grab a bite to eat. They are open every day at 11 a.m. and close at 10 p.m. on weekdays and midnight on the weekends. If you want to learn more about Hopkins Ice House or just look at a menu, visit their website here. 

If you have any other questions for me or have a business that you would like to have featured on the next episode of Trade Local, give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.