OUR STORY

 

It all began with our co-founder, Todd Landis’ daughter Naomi’s growing love for sushi.  After Todd had traveled to Japan for business, he returned and discussed the sushi he had on his trip.  Naomi insisted that she would like to try sushi like that, leading Todd to begin taking Naomi to Nobu at age 4.  On their first visit for their “daddy/daughter” date night, fate sat them in front of our other co-founder, Shine Tamaoki.  As Shine heard the story, he carefully selected Naomi’s first fish—a delicate piece of Suzuki (sea bass).  And a love of sushi was born and a new friendship between Todd and Shine began to take root.  Over the next six years, Naomi and Todd frequented Nobu, always sitting in front of Shine, as Naomi list grew from that piece of Suzuki at age 4 to over 60 different fish by age 10.  It is was in that time that Todd and Shine began discussing the possibility of opening a sushi restaurant.  Finally in 2023, that dream became reality as they acquired the location that would become Pearl.  Todd set out to design and build the restaurant while Shine and our future General Manager Kaya Turner began working on the concept, and menus.  We are proud that our entire restaurant was designed and developed by our team—bringing a personal charm to Pearl that few restaurants have.