BROOKFIELD — Fans of sushi, hibachi, teriyaki and other Japanese dishes will be happy to learn that a family-owned restaurant called Aki Japanese Cuisine has just opened a new location in Brookfield.
The restaurant, which opened Monday at 450 Federal Road, is managed by Kaylee Lu, who works with her in-laws, a cousin and other family members at the new venture.
Since 2007, the family has also owned another location for Aki Japanese Cuisine in East Northport, N.Y. They decided to open a second location in Brookfield because “the town is developing. It’s building up shopping centers,” said Sammi Hu, Lu’s aunt.
Lu said she’s happy to work side-by-side with her family members.
“We are a team,” said Lu, who is 32 and lives in East Northport. “It’s a tradition.”
Greg Dembowski, Brookfield’s economic development manager, said Aki Japanese Cuisine is the first Japanese restaurant that's located outside Brookfield’s town center district.
“Its location is at the center of an area on Federal Road from the cornfield at Junction Road to Silvermine Road," Dembowski said. "This three-quarter mile stretch has seen a new medical office, three commercial developments and two housing complexes — Barnbeck Place and Oak Meadows — built since 2016, and more is under construction."
Before the family opened the Brookfield restaurant, Lu worked at the East Northport location and before that, she taught in early childhood classrooms at a Montessori school in Manhattan. Hu works primarily at the East Northport location. Both Lu and Hu said they hope to move to Brookfield soon.
From 2011 to 2020, the family also owned another Aki Japanese Cuisine location in Port Washington, N.Y., but no longer own it.
"Because of COVID, we were short on employment so we sold that one,” she said.
Hu, who is 44 and also lives in East Northport, said the two locations share the same menu.
“Everything is made in house,” Hu said about the 3,600-square-foot Brookfield restaurant, which seats 84 patrons inside and 20 outside.
Hu said she broke into the restaurant business when she was 16.
“When I was in high school, I worked at restaurants after school to make money, as a waitress," she said.
Hu’s husband, Henry Hu, is a sushi chef for the Brookfield restaurant.
“He came here in his 30s from China, and he started working in sushi restaurants to learn to become a sushi chef," she said. "He worked in all different kinds of sushi restaurants for 10, 15, years, and then we decided to open a sushi restaurant."
Aki Japanese Cuisine is in the site formerly occupied by Cibo, an Italian restaurant, which permanently closed.