Downtown dining
Hiro 88 Yin family finds success downtown with edgy decor, Asian hybrid menu story by Traci Osuna photos by minorwhitestudios.com
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We wanted a restaurant that was a little more edgy. -Charlie Yin
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Hiro 88’s owner Milton Yin, seated, with nephew and G.M. Charlie Yin.
ince opening in April of 2010, Hiro 88 has brought a lot to the Old Market neighborhood that it calls home. The restaurant combines the old with the new, serving recipes that are tried and true with a style that is innovative and fresh. Co-owner and operator Milton Yin has answered the call of the people of Omaha by bringing his popular West Omaha restaurant, Hiro Sushi, to the downtown area. “We’ve always considered the Old Market the urban area of Omaha and…we wanted a restaurant that was a little more edgy,” says Charlie Yin, Milton’s nephew and general manager of Hiro 88. “ …Something with a bit of a twist…like a hybrid between something you’d see in a big city and something that fits into Omaha well.” Hiro 88’s diverse menu of Asian cuisine is a combination of their popular sushi dishes as well as both full Chinese and Japanese menus. “One thing that not many people know is that we have almost the entire menu from the old Imperial Palace,” adds Charlie. He also shares that the chefs at Hiro are working on developing Thai and Korean dishes as well. “I’d say we have a focus on Sushi and Chinese, but with a Pan-Asian scope.” Charlie shares how his uncle, born in China and raised in Korea, came to the United States when he was a young man. The family arrived in California, where older brother Danny (Charlie’s father) enrolled in college. Later, it was Danny and his wife, Anita, who traveled to Omaha and opened the popular Chinese restaurant, Imperial Palace, in the late ‘70s. “They’d seen a lot of tourist traffic coming in from Omaha and realized that Omaha needed a good Asian restaurant.” The Yin family joined Danny in Omaha, where younger brothers David and Milton helped make the restaurant a success. After the Imperial Palace closed, Milton still felt drawn to the restaurant industry. “It’s hard to get out of the food business,” says Charlie. “It’s something that encompasses your life.” Milton opened Hiro Sushi, located near 130th and Maple streets, in 2002. As the popularity of Hiro Sushi grew, so did the wait line outside their restaurant during ‘reverse happy hour.’ “We used to have clients who lived in Midtown that said, ‘We really wish you’d open something further east,” recalls Charlie. Milton found the right spot at 13th and Jackson. “The Old Market really
january/february 2012 | the encounter
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