Success stories are hard to come by these days. But Wabi on Rose is one of them.
“We’re thriving on Rose,” proclaims co-owner Tricia Smalls triumphantly via cell phone.
It’s music to the ears. Especially after an unexpected fire in December 2018 forced the popular sushi restaurant Wabi on Abbot Kinney (or Wabi 1) to close.
“We were doing the best we could to open in that location,” shares Smalls, “but due to the size of the loss, we were forced to look into other locations. Venice is our home and we wanted to stay, but there wasn’t a lot available.”
Then the owners of Makani, located on Rose, approached Smalls to do a partnership. Wabi’s owners were familiar with that space — one of Wabi’s owners was one of the original designers of Makani — and they decided it was a good fit.
Just two weeks before the pandemic lockdown, Wabi signed the contract. And despite the unfortunate turn of events, Wabi decided to move forward and try to make the best takeout program possible in Venice.
On April 4, Wabi on Rose (or Wabi 2) launched their takeout program. …
Read the full article at The Argonaut.
Jessica Koslow 