After nearly four decades, We Be Sushi has shuttered its final location in San Francisco's Mission District as owner Andy Tonozuka retires at age 76. The restaurant, known for its sushi and Japanese dishes, operated from 538 Valencia Street near 16th Street until February 13. Tonozuka expressed relief at the decision, citing the pressures of long-term kitchen work.
We Be Sushi opened its first location in 1987 at 1071 Valencia Street near 22nd Street, when Tonozuka was already an experienced sushi chef. He had apprenticed for eight years at Hatsuhana restaurant in Tokyo’s National Diet Building, serving sushi to prime ministers and government officials. In the mid-1970s, Tonozuka moved to New York to work for his former boss, Mr. Tanaka, at the Manhattan branch of Hatsuhana, which opened in 1976 and became the first Japanese restaurant to receive a four-star review from The New York Times in 1983.
Tonozuka arrived in San Francisco in 1984 and initially worked at Nikko restaurant at Pine and Van Ness streets. Encouraged by his boss to start his own place, he chose the Valencia and 22nd streets area over Silicon Valley, which he found too quiet. The business saw quick success, with an uptick in customers within the first month and demand extending to the East Bay within two months. Initially planned as “McSushi,” the name changed after a letter from McDonald’s attorneys; “We Be Sushi” emerged from a pre-opening naming contest with about 200 suggestions.
At its peak, We Be Sushi had up to five locations in San Francisco. The 538 Valencia Street site, which opened in 1996, marked its 30th anniversary this year before closing on February 13. Tonozuka closed the original Valencia location in 2024 due to declining business, his age, and sciatic nerve pain, noting he was already “mentally and physically halfway retired.” He appreciated the support that allowed him to buy a home and send his children to college—his daughter to the University of Puget Sound and now at Nvidia, and his son to Occidental College and now at the American embassy in Osaka.
“I’m 76 now, that’s long enough,” Tonozuka said. “I felt so much relief once I decided to retire.” Eileen Rinaldi, owner of Ritual Coffee and president of the Valencia Merchants Association, praised the restaurant as “a true small business where the owner is there, and you can feel it in every detail.” Longtime customer Lauren Umetani, who dined there twice a week for 25 years and favored the ebi-ten maki and shrimp tempura roll, expressed sadness but happiness for Tonozuka’s retirement: “He has earned it.”
Tonozuka plans to do “something good for society” and will gift the restaurant’s iconic signs—advertising sushi “Like Mom Used to Make”—to a loyal customer who owns a bar. He retains the “We Be Sushi” brand and reflected, “I made good sushi for everybody. That’s my best pleasure, to see the people smiling and telling me the sushi was so good.”
