Sushi at the 17th Avenue Grill

Starting in October there is going to be a new menu option in Grand Rapids. The 17th Avenue Grill at the Timberlake Lodge is going to start offering Sushi every Monday evening, along with a selection of sake's.

Previews of these new offerings were the focus of a fundraiser for the Special Olympics on Thursday. The offerings at the fundraiser included a variety of sushi and sushi rolls.

For people unfamiliar with sushi, most sushi is raw fish on seasoned rice. There are also offerings with egg and tofu. It is often eaten with a mixture of soy sauce and wasabi, which, as usually presented in the United States, is a green horseradish concoction. (Real wasabi is a different plant grown in Japan. It is very expensive even there and rarely seen in the United States).

The offering Thursday included tuna, salmon and shrimp, as well as several others. These were served as nigiri, a slice of fish on top of a cake of sushi rice. They sometimes have flavoring under the fish such as wasabi or other sauce. There was a tofu offering and what looked like a scrambled egg offering in addition to the fish, but I didn't try these.

There were also several maki rolls, where a mixture of ingredients is rolled up with the rice in seaweed and then cut in slices. The maki rolls may or may not include raw fish. They may include radish or cucumber instead of the fish. Standards are an Alaskan Roll that includes smoked salmon, cucumber and cream cheese. There is also a California Roll that is avocado, cream cheese and crab(or imitation crab). I didn't notice whether these were offered, but there were number of more creative options that were very tasty.

It appears the 17th Avenue Grill will offer a wide variety of sushi, including plenty of options for people who don't like raw fish. Its not clear whether they are going to offer people choices or some kind of fixed menu. We will have to wait for them to start regular service in October.

The offerings for sake at the fundraiser were a pear infused sake and a peach infused sake. Both were served cold. While I would have preferred the warm traditional sake, I can understand the difficulty of offering this to a large group at a fundraiser. Its not clear whether the Grill will offer that option when it begins its Sushi Mondays. The fundraiser also offered a couple of asian style "martinis", but they seemed pretty sweet to both Marcia and I.

In any case, this is exciting. Marcia and I get sushi in both Duluth and the Twin Cities when we visit. Its going to be great to have the option available closer to home.