Brad Meltzer: Mr. Teppayaki
Brad Metlzer
Meltzer is a Renaissance man to be sure. He studied accounting in college, and it was in that capacity that he first began working for Egmont Sonderling, a well-known owner of movie theaters. Later he moved on to work for Sumner Redstone, the media mogul behind Viacom. It was on a business trip to Miami that Brad first encountered a new dining concept founded by former wrestler and ice cream truck owner and larger-than-life guy Rocky Aoki: Japanese Teppanyaki and a smallish chain called Benihana.
Meltzer was smitten and met and became good friends with Aoki and his wife. He moved his young family to Austin, invested in and later purchased his first Teppanyaki restaurant, invested in real estate, and along the way even ran for mayor. When he opened Benihana on Burnet, it was a model of operational efficiency and customer appreciation. The grill masters and the show they put on: all part of the Benihana experience, not to mention the sushi master that Brad lured away, created an Austin brand that endured for quite some time.
Upon founder Aoki’s death in 2008 however, things took a bit of a negative turn for the company, and inexplicably, Meltzer found himself forced out of Benihana by a legion of corporate lawyers who were feuding with the Aoki estate.
Undeterred, Brad founded Meltzer’s across from Applebee’s on the North IH-35 access road. He veered away from his comfort zone however, and the venture did not work. Still going through legal wrangling with the Benihana lawyers, he closed the Burnet store and ventured to San Antonio where on I-10, ironically at the site of a former Benihana, he opened Sumo, a Teppanyaki/sushi concept that has been a hit from Day 1. The pyrotechnic shows the grill masters put on while preparing food far exceeds anything ever attempted or for that matter, even allowed by Benihana.
I admire Brad for his tenacity, his creativity, his ability to assess and hire great talent, and like my friend Sap (Sap’s Fine Thai Cuisine), his reputation as one of the truly nice guys of the Austin (and now San Antonio) restaurant scene. Will we see a Sumo in Austin soon? Given that the Teppanyaki market is a bit sparse here, I wouldn’t bet against it, or against Brad Meltzer for that matter.
