By Jacob Jaffa

Copyright thejc

When one thinks of “Jewish food”, sushi isn’t usually the first dish that pops to mind (gefilte nigiri anyone?). But SushiDog, an innovative chain serving up grab-n-go burrito-style sushi rolls, has a thoroughly Jewish heart. The dynamic duo behind it – Greg Ilsen and Nick Goldstein – met during their days at Immanuel College in Bushey. “I think one of my first memories with Greg is playing table tennis in my living room,” Nick tells the JC. “We grew up at Immanuel having quite a standard group of friends around us, and we’re still very close with a lot of those friends now.” “We went to the same university and ended up actually living in the same house in rooms two feet away from each other,” adds Nick. “We’ve been a big part of each others lives for the best part of 20 years.” Having left university, the future business partners started off far from the hospitality industry, with Nick working as a teacher and Greg at Ocado. “We were both a bit sick of our jobs,” chuckles Nick. Their SushiDog journey actually started during a trip to Israel, when a meal with friends turned into the foundation for their business. Greg recalls: “We had gone out for dinner North Abraxas [celebrity chef Eyal Shani’s upmarket “small plates” restaurant in Tel Aviv] and we just loved the concept. “We were talking about bringing that style of eating back to London … but we soon realised there were already plans to bring that to London, I think it was [another] Eyal Shani restaurant. “Some time around that summer, Nick messaged me out of the blue saying: ‘Have you heard about the way they eat sushi in Australia. They eat it like a burrito’.” “We exchanged a few messages about it, then I messaged Nick the next day just saying: ‘SushiDog?’” “The rest all stems from that conversation and [it] now appears as a piece of artwork in all of our stores,” he adds, joking that some of the wording has been altered to make the chat log more “customer friendly”. With no previous experience running a restaurant, Nick and Greg opened their first store – a kiosk in London’s Westfield shopping centre in Shepherd’s Bush – in May 2018, after just four months to get it ready. “I remember vividly standing inside that kiosk in our uniform, me, Nick and maybe one other staff member, not having a clue what on Earth we were doing … then suddenly we had a queue of customers forming,” recalls Greg. From its very beginning, the business has drawn heavily, though often not visibly, on its founders’ upbringing in the Jewish community. New sushi rolls were tested out on relatives during Friday night dinners and both men give a wry smile as they recount how the first SushiDog store leaned on their sense of family. “I don’t think either of us had ever worked that hard,” laughs Nick, as Greg adds: “We had both of our wives, my mum and a couple of friends working proper shifts when we were let down by staff. “I remember one night, Nick sent me a screenshot of the CCTV footage and it was just me sitting outside the kiosk, exhausted and my mum just single-handedly running the show.” On the importance of their Jewish identity, Greg adds: “We are very openly Jewish in our business. “Being Jewish business owners is an opportunity for us to spread a positive message by being good people in the way that we employ … I think that’s a really positive opportunity for us.” Since the Westfield days, they have expanded to 10 locations across the capital, including in London Bridge, Bank and Covent Garden. But the JC can exclusively reveal that their next opening will take them to the heart of north London, with a long-awaited Brent Cross outlet set to open at the end of October. And the pace of growth is only set to quicken, with Nick and Greg hoping to take SushiDog national, with a mystery out-of-London branch early next year. So, with an outlet coming soon in the heart of one of the UK’s largest Jewish communities, can we expect a kosher SushiDog anytime soon? “The idea’s been pitched a few times,” laughs Nick. “We haven’t found the market for it, but if we open in Israel one day then maybe that could be the first kosher SushiDog. “It’s not any immediate plan but it’s something we spoke about early days in the business and would be a nice thing to do someday.” As we wrap up, I couldn’t let Greg and Nick go without asking my toughest question: what is their favourite menu item? For Greg, it’s one of their build-your-own options – marinated tuna, sriracha mayo, soy sauce, cucumber, avocado, edamame beans, spring onions and wonton strips. Nick, meanwhile, leans towards the classics and their set signature salmon roll (though he confesses to swapping out the Japanese mayo for the sriracha mayo). “I’d recommend to anyone trying SushiDog, maybe the first time do one of the signatures but then definitely do build your own because that’s a huge part of a our product. “A lot of the fun is picking the ingredients you like and making your perfect roll.”