Description
Sakura is the one Japanese restaurant you would want to have in your city if you could have only one Japanese restaurant: It does that much. Look inside the deep red walls on a typical night, and you'll find legions of different customers. In one corner, Wild hockey fans seek the next spicy sushi sensation, daring the chefs to make them sweat. Near a front window, Japanese expats from local universities, 3M, and Unisys drink and snack till the wee hours. Elsewhere, graduate students take advantage of the thrifty yakizakana teishoku meals, the blue-plate specials, the meat-loaf-and-mashed-potatoes of everyday Japan. Vegetarians confer around the most reliable vegetable sushi in the state. Miyoko Omori, Sakura's owner, has been creating these layers of community for years now, and if you get a table near the window on a Sakura Saturday night, you might understand the brick-built weave of St. Paul in a way you never did before.
