Started cooking with his grandfather at the age of 7 for the Paradise Point Church Camp in McCall, ID during the summers.
His parents owned Ogawa’s Teriyaki Hut in Ontario, OR that Tom purchased from them in 2004. He grew up in the restaurant industry. In fact, his children ages 10, 7 and 7, all know how to roll sushi and are familiar with the restaurant business.

Success is attributed number one to Consistency. Best compliment he could ever get is “It’s as good as always”.

He has had customers tell him the food is as good as any one would get in New York City.

When asked what he attributed his low turnover of staff to (60% have been there all three years he has been in the new location), he advised onsite actively involved owner presence. He is there everyday except Saturday. He treats his staff with respect and commands respect. His favorite saying to them is “My way or the highway”, meaning consistency once again. He explained if everyone came in and had their own way of doing things, corporate culture would disappear.

Tom expects his staff to deliver exceptional customer service. He learned from a fellow successful restaurant owner how important it is for the owner to meet and greet clients. Ontario is a small town of about 10,000 and Tom knows his clientele. If he sees new faces walk in, he greets them and asks where they are from and what brought them into Ontario. They are all fairly surprised that they were noticed and recognized and that he could pick them out from his regular clientele.

He knows part of his success is due to the exceptionally fresh and high quality ingredients for his menu items. His menu is diverse, from hand rolled sushi to 100% Black Angus burgers. He’s not afraid to experiment with recipes and he has a special Valentine’s Day dinner planned with Amaretto crab stuffed salmon with an Amaretto coconut nutmeg sauce.

“If it wasn’t for them (the TVCC BizCenter) I never would have gotten the loan for this new restaurant.”

—TOM OGAWA, OWNER
OGAWA’S JAPANESE RESTAURANT
ONTARIO, OR