Sushi restaurant an alley pioneer
Kampai plans to start serving customers before the end of April at 907 Alley A, co-owner Art Wuttisak said.
Huebert Builders is the general contractor completing the interior of the space located between Eighth and Ninth streets, a half-block south of Broadway. John Ott owns the renovated historic building, and the northern portion that fronts Broadway is leased by Breeze, a women’s clothing store that took over the former Manhattan Closet space.
The downtown alley spaces required addresses before they could get building permits from the city, so Ott asked the city to give it the generic name Alley A. But he said Tuesday, “I think the name is going to stick.” Each block of the other downtown alleys could also get a letter designation because they are perpendicular to the streets with numbers as names, he said.
(Broadway Brewery has a back entrance in the alley one block east, and The Alpaca Co. is open periodically across the alley from Kampai.)
Kampai is Japanese for “cheers,” and is a common name for sushi restaurants. Wuttisak and his two partners, including one who will be the chef at Kampai, are from Thailand but have been living in St. Louis and working in Japanese-style sushi restaurants for years. They all are relocating to Columbia.
Wuttisak said he likes the alley space, particularly the outdoor patio, and decided to open the restaurant in Columbia primarily because of the large student populations nearby.
Saki was the only Japanese sushi bar open downtown before Geisha Sushi Bar opened last fall at 804 E. Broadway.