Lou Valente returns to his roots, reboots namesake sushi restaurant in midtown
One of Sacramento’s most beloved sushi chefs is back behind the knife. Lou Valente relaunched his namesake restaurant, Lou’s Sushi, on Friday, Jan. 23, in the MARRS Building space that formerly housed Holy Spirits at 1050 20th St. in midtown.
Valente brings more than 30 years of sushi experience to the table. He first experienced it when he moved to Los Angeles from his hometown Philadelphia in 1991. He was immediately smitten with the cuisine.
He began working as a dishwasher at a sushi restaurant in Mailbu.
“One day the owner of the restaurant was so busy that he asked me if, the next night, I’d like to start making California rolls and spicy tuna rolls. And so of course, I jumped at the jumped at that,” Valente said.
He moved to San Francisco to attend the California Culinary Academy. To pay his way through, he made sushi at Kiyoshi Hayakawa’s Sausalito restaurant, Sushi Ran. Sushi Ran would later receive a Michelin star.
When Hayakawa opened Ace Wasabi in San Francisco’s Marina District, Valente stepped in as a sushi chef, and ultimately ran the restaurant for three years.
In 2000, Valente moved to Sacramento and opened Sushi on the River. He then worked with esteemed sushi chef Taka Watanabe at Taka Sushi. Watanabe recently retired from making sushi and now resides in Brazil
In 2013, Valente went entrepreneurial again, launching the first iteration of Lou’s Sushi at 28th and P streets. After a dispute with his business partner, Valente left the business and went to apprentice with Shige Tokita, who first brought sushi to Sacramento in the 1970s.
With new partners, he opened Southpaw Sushi in Natomas in 2019. The restaurant weathered the blows of COVID-19, but the relationship between Valente and his partners was strained. Again, he left in 2022.
Taking a break from sushi — and from business partners — Valente took a job with UC Davis making pizza. This evolved from an underground Detroit-style pizza business he ran from his home during lockdown in order to cover his bills.
In May 2023, Valente began doing sushi pop-ups at Holy Spirits.
“That was a big success. Then I did another pop up, and they asked me to come on full time at Holy Spirits,” Valente said.
The subsequent year, the owners of Lowbrau, Holy Spirits and Beast + Bounty defaulted on loans. Bay Area-based Ryze Hospitality Group snapped up Lowbrau and Holy Spirits.
“I hit it off with the new owner, and we started talking about bringing Lou’s Sushi back. We contemplated it for about a year or so, and then we just said, you know, the hell with it, let’s do it,” Valente said.
This time, however, he’s doing it on his own, no partners.
After a light remodel, Lou’s Sushi opened with much excitement from longtime fans. On Lowbrau’s social post announcing the opening, Rebecca Dean commented, “WOWWWWWWW! I have missed Lous sushi soooo much.IYKYK I am sooooo excited to see this, its definitely a huge win for Sacramento.”
Valente is excited to be back in the kitchen, but it’s very much a one-man show. He’s simplified the menu so he can manage the workload.
“I did away with all cut rolls, because they take way too much time,” he said. “I went to Los Angeles to visit a friend, and I ate at KazuNori, the famous hand roll bar down there. A light went on and because there’s only one guy making the hand rolls. And so that’s what I did. This is a hand roll bar with sashimi and Japanese small plates.”
The cylindrical, not conical hand rolls range from $8 to $12, and include vegetarian options. One of the nigiri options is one from his original menu, Tastes Like Beef ($25).
“When you serve tuna with a creamy wasabi sauce, ponzu, tempura and onion rings. It tastes like beef, somehow,” Valente said.
One of the small plates is Albacore carpaccio ($23), his version of Pepperfin, invented by a chef at Mikuni in the late ‘90s.
Lou’s Sushi will be open 5-9 p.m., Wednesday through Saturday.
