JULY 3, 2002
Sachi MacGregor thinks retirement is the time to do something for which you have a passion. Her passion is preparing Japanese food, and she has opened a small cafe in Grand Cities Mall, where she sells teriyaki meals and sushi. Going into her third month, she couldn’t be happier. Along with her love of cooking, she enjoys her customers.
Her partner in the business is her husband, Lester MacGregor, a retired U.S. Postal Service employee. But he says it’s Sachi’s business and that he is just the chief bottle washer. Others on the staff are two women who come in to make up everything fresh each morning—Chika Price, who originally came from Japan, and Harumi Pavlicek, a native of Okinawa.
Sachi was born in Japan and met her husband in Okinawa when he was there in the U.S. Marine Corps. The couple has five grown children and six grandchildren.
You get a warm welcome from the MacGregors when you go to Kon Nechi Wa’s at the front of Grand Cities Mall. The location formerly was occupied by Antonio’s Pizza, and by Figaro’s before that. The MacGregors explain that kon nechi wa means “good afternoon.”
They have a special every day for $4.95 and teriyaki meals ranging in price from $6.95 to $9. They serve three kinds of sushi, and it is made up to order. Their aim is to get orders out within four to five minutes, but they can’t always meet their self-imposed deadline.
Sushi is described in my guide from the Association of Food Journalists as “Japanese; various combinations of seasoned rice, vegetables, raw fish (sashimi), wasabi, seaweed (nori).”
My first visit to Kon Nechi Wa’s was with Barbara Lander (BL) late in June. BL tried the beef stir-fry with noodles and found it very good. I went for the daily special of fried rice with chicken and vegetables, an egg roll and beverage. I found it to be a tasty and satisfying meal. On a second visit, I had another special of stir-fried rice topped with pea pods, carrot slivers and onion, accompanied by a crisp egg roll and choice of soda or tea.
I visited with Tammy Tanke (TT), who had come in to pick up sushi on her way home from work. TT said she does this often and enjoys it. She chose Inari Sushi with seaweed wrap, seasoning, sushi rice, daikon-sweet pickle and ginger ($4.50). TT appreciates the fresh ginger. The wasabi, she says, has a good bite.
You get a little container of wasabi with your sushi, and Sachi recommends mixing it with soy sauce.
Other choices of sushi are crab roll, made with crab meat, sushi rice, seaweed wrap, egg, cucumber, ginger and wasabi ($4.50). Then, there’s my favorite, California Wrap Sushi, with rice, crab meat, egg, avocado, ginger and wasabi ($4.50).
Customers enjoy watching from behind the glassed-in work area as Sachi makes up the sushi. And Sachi is living out a dream in her cafe. For 25 years, she sold cosmetics and jewelry and managed the department for J.C. Penney Co. “Basically,” she says with a smile, “I was married to J.C. Penney. It’s a wonderful feeling now to be retired and have a second chance.”
She started out in the food business with a small cafe on wheels, taking her Japanese foods to events in the summertime. She is a charter member of the Farmers Market on Saturdays in Grand Forks. She will be at the Fourth of July celebration at University Park and Catfish Days in East Grand Forks. Meanwhile, she wears a happy smile behind the cheery counter of Kon Nechi Wa’s.
She makes the sweet-and-sour sauce and hot sauce that are on each table. She orders ingredients from Winnipeg, Minneapolis and Fargo. Regularly, she makes up a fresh batch of Japanese doughnuts (50 cents) that she keeps in a jar on the counter.
“In my mother’s generation,” she says, “if you can’t make these doughnuts, you are not ready to get married.”