Greta’s Sushi

Starting from the Tatami Mat

Sushi has fascinated Greta Reid since she was small, around seven or eight years old. Her parents would bring her to a restaurant with a traditional tatami room, where she felt she was being transported to another universe. She’d sit down on the mat,  captivated by the bite-sized rolls. She remembers how excited she was to order in Japanese, whether or not the server actually spoke the language—clumsily and proudly sounding out unfamiliar words like “maguro sushi”. 

“Being like, taken into another world just seemed so interesting to me,” she explained over locally-brewed lavender kombucha outside Hey Café in New Orleans, overlooking the Lafitte Greenway. Reid attributes her fascination with Japanese food and culture in part to growing up “such an anime nerd,” ever since her dad introduced Japanese animation to her at a young age. “I think seeing Japanese food like that made me really interested to eat what I was seeing on TV.”

Getting Behind the Bar

Reid entered the restaurant industry at twenty years old while attending college at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, proving her mettle as a food runner carrying thirty-pound platters to and from the downstairs kitchen at a restaurant called Chino Latino. “I kind of proved that I was in it to win it there. And I stuck with it,” she said. “So I got some respect from that.” The restaurant had a sushi bar that Reid at first eyed from afar, until a sushi chef named Ana insisted that if Reid loved sushi, she should train to make it. “I love that a woman convinced me to join on,” she remembered with a smile. “And then, after months of begging these chefs, they finally let me try it out.”

That whole summer between semesters, Reid would go into the restaurant, even on her days off, to study under the sushi chefs. When a spot finally opened up, Reid was already trained and ready to step up to the bar. “So I got in right away. I was lucky.”

“I love that a woman convinced me to join on...And then, after months of begging these chefs, they finally let me try it out.” —Greta Reid

Following the completion of her undergraduate degree, Reid felt herself torn between two futures: Move to Denver—a place as landlocked as it gets—and complete her Master’s degree in child, family, and school psychology; or pursue this passion for sushi-making. Fate, it turns out, would pave the way for her to do both. 

Right around the same time as her grad school move in 2018, the acclaimed sushi Chef Tyson Cole chose the Mile High City as the home for the newest iteration of his James Beard Award-winning Uchi Restaurants. Shortly after her arrival, Reid took the job as sushi chef. “Which was the craziest two years of my life, I'll say for sure,” she said, recalling  this period of juggling graduate-level academia while simultaneously gaining more in-depth training in sushi-making at Uchi. “That's where I learned a lot of my chops and got really refined with my stuff that I do,” she said.

Meanwhile, she was putting together her master’s thesis—a study on the positive impacts green spaces in schools can have on a child’s development. Conducting that research got her thinking about the importance of environmental sustainability in all areas of her life—particularly in the American sushi industry, which sources significantly from international waters. “So along with that, sustainability and connecting with local farmers and all that became of more importance in my head.”

Reid completed her masters just before the pandemic hit in 2020, and then made the move to New Orleans. “I did not know how to use my degree at all,” she said, acknowledging that it was a tough time for anyone to set out on their career. “But I knew how to do sushi.” 

 At this point, her opposing passions for sushi and sustainability were starting to clash. It was difficult to feel good about working at a restaurant that was almost exclusively importing fish from across the world, causing excessive CO2 emissions and neglecting the local seafood industry in the process. And she soon discovered she wasn’t the only person with these concerns, observing the growing movement of people in Louisiana and beyond who have sworn off eating sushi entirely. Passionate about both sushi and the environment, she wanted to find a solution to bridge that gap. “I want everyone to eat sushi,” she said.

“If this guy's telling me that he doesn't eat [sushi] because of a sustainability issue, that’s something I want to face head on.” —Greta Reid

Seeing the opportunity in front of her to join her two passions in a meaningful way, in February 2021 Reid officially started her pop-up restaurant, Greta’s Sushi—New Orleans’ first sustainability-focused sushi purveyor. 

Reaching into the Gulf 

Reid made her first local fish contact through Instagram. "So that's kind of how it started . . . someone posted something saying like, ‘If anyone needs a snapper connect, hit this guy up,’ ” she said. To this day, Michael Dang provides Reid with fresh gulf mackerel, cobia, and other local fish varieties for her dishes.“ “He's just like, my independent local fisherman that I love to go through.” 

For produce, Reid scopes out the various offerings and producers at the Crescent City Farmer’s Market, which sets up in City Park on Sunday mornings and in other New Orleans neighborhoods on various weekdays. “Even if I don't need to buy anything for an event, I like to see what's in season and what farmers are starting to get so I can start thinking about different dishes that I can run for whatever season is coming up,” Reid explained. “But I like to try and shift things with seasonality. Again, always trying to buy from local farmers first.” 

For other produce and seafood, she often utilizes Destrehan-based wholesaler and “online farmer’s market” JV Foods—which is a “chef- and restaurant-driven” distributor to the New Orleans area and larger Gulf Coast. Part of its mission is sourcing locally to promote sustainability and environmental consciousness, too—lining the company right up with Reid’s goals for her own pop-up operation. Most of JV Foods’ inventory comes directly from Louisiana farmers and fishers, with occasional products offered from purveyors in Texas, Alabama, and Mississippi. Occasionally, for harder-to-find special produce like finger limes, JV will utilize a farm connection as far as California, but Reid appreciates that they prioritize locally-grown, smaller businesses, and that quality is always assured. 

"I like to try and shift things with seasonality. Again, always trying to buy from local farmers first.” —Greta Reid

When she first started Greta’s Sushi, Reid’s intent was to not include a single ingredient that was imported; to exclusively use local fish and farmer’s market produce. For practical reasons, she’s lowered this threshold a bit, though she still considers local sourcing an utmost priority. “Over time I’ve become a little bit more lenient, because it’s hard to always locate local stuff,” she told me. “And like, I couldn't use avocados, which just go really well with sushi.” 

A One-Woman Act 

When it comes to operating a one-woman sushi business, finding affordable local ingredients is only a fraction of the challenge. “Meeting up with people is so much fun, and connecting with the farmers and the fishermen,” Reid said. “But also, there’s so many other parts of my job, being a one man show. Cooking is like . . . I wish that was the priority of it.” 

Besides the sourcing and cooking, starting Greta’s Sushi involved booking events and pop-ups; creating flyers, logos, and menus; marketing her burgeoning business, and more. “Sometimes I felt like I was a full-time dishwasher, more than anything else.”

Reid admitted that she misses watching others work and learning new skills, a definite drawback to cooking by herself. “I haven't been able to continue my training in a while,” she told me, acknowledging that the impact of learning under another chef can’t fully be replicated by watching YouTube videos alone. “And I'm definitely not done learning.”

This June, she had the opportunity to continue her sushi education by helping a former coworker from Denver’s Uchi open a new restaurant called Rosella at the Grand Hotel in Kennebunkport, Maine, which also has a focus on sushi crafted with local fish. When we talked, she was particularly excited to make sushi with porgy—which is typically viewed as a “scrub” fish of poor quality, but Reid asserts is actually a nice, white bream fish, and  a perfect candidate for the sushi treatment. Much like bluefin tuna was at one time viewed as low-quality because of its oiliness—but has benefited from evolving perceptions as the market has shifted its preference to value fattier fishes—Reid thinks many traditionally cheaper fish varieties have the potential to be great sushi ingredients, if only consumers open their minds beyond standards like tuna, sea bass, and salmon. 

Helping to open Rosella—which is already garnering considerable press and award consideration as the sustainable sushi movement grows—has helped Reid sharpen her skills while continuing to change perceptions about Louisiana’s Gulf seafood back at home. 

Sushi for the Future

With all of this momentum, and the positive reception Greta’s Sushi has received thus far, Reid has begun to consider someday opening her own restaurant. “I thought I was going to use my masters, but I’m really happy going down this road. And Greta's Sushi has been popping off recently,” she said. “So I'm really excited about it. And now I’ve gotta stick with it.”

Besides eventually starting a brick-and-mortar, long-term goals of Reid’s include partnering with New Orleans nonprofit organizations to teach the art of sushi-making to kids who may not otherwise have the opportunity to be exposed to it. “I do like to help give back to the community however I can,” Reid told me. 

But this July, now that she has returned to Louisiana with sharper skills than before, she’s continuing to pop-up with Greta’s Sushi at various local bar residencies—including Rabbit’s Foot and Tell Me Bar. She’s also going to continue to host private multi-course chef-curated Omakase dinners, which translate from Japanese to “I’ll leave it up to you, Chef.” 

Through it all, sustainability remains a prominent focus—and Reid is hopeful that the movement will extend far beyond her own business and even the sushi industry, and that more restaurants will begin to offer sustainable specials lists, or indicators on the menu for local products. And for the sake of our planet as well as our local

communities, she hopes that it isn’t only the sushi industry that’s moving in that direction. 

“With sushi, it's all about enjoying your craft and honing in on what you know—I feel like we could all do that,” —Greta Reid

“And become more sustainable in everything that we all do independently, in all of our own niches and jobs that we take part in—to integrate and to figure out ways to make it more sustainable, because that's what the future needs. Working with your community or working locally, I think that will help make everything more sustainable.” 

Keep up with Greta Reid’s upcoming pop-ups on the Greta’s Sushi Facebook and Instagram.