Sushi Leblon celebrates 40 years as the first Japanese restaurant in Rio de Janeiro's South Zone. The house opened initially under the name Tatsumi, in honor of Pepê, free flight world champion in Japan, and his wife Ana Carolina Gayoso. Over the decades, the restaurant changed its name several times, going through Sushi do Pepê and Leblon Sushi Bar before becoming definitively Sushi Leblon.
Carolina Gayoso recounts that Pepê loved Japanese food and that, at the time of opening, the only existing Japanese restaurant in the city was Miako, in Barra da Tijuca. Since 1991, when her husband suffered a fatal accident in Japan, Carolina is the one who runs the house on Dias Ferreira.
To celebrate the milestone, she is organizing special tables with 40 regular customers at a time. The owner highlights that many of these customers have been frequenting the restaurant for decades, some bringing their grandchildren, whose parents also grew up frequenting the establishment.
The article also briefly mentions the opening of a bistro on the 22nd floor of the historic Serrador Building, a 1944 construction located in Cinelândia, which will be another gastronomic novelty in the city.
