Weissabi, a New Sushi Bar on 20th Ave., Holds its Grand Opening on Tuesday

By Yehudit Garmaise

   Platters with 14 rolls of extremely fresh sushi in arrangements of dreidels and menorahs are what every Chanukah party needs, and Weissabi is the place to get those platters.

   Abe Weiss, who lives in Boro Park, is holding his grand opening of his new “to-go” sushi bar, which is located at 6011 20th Ave., the growing area in which Weiss lives and where he says many young people are now moving.

    Although Boro Parkers are not strangers to sushi, before Weissabi, no sushi bar had yet popped up in the neighborhood around 60th Street and 20th Avenue.

  “Young people, especially love sushi,” said Weiss, who noted that he brings sushi to “a whole new level of freshness, beauty, and tastiness that people go crazy for.” 

   “Our fish is very fresh,” he said. “I brought in very good chefs. We have special ways of making our rice and our own specialty sauces.”

   Before COVID-19, Weiss worked in real estate, for which the pandemic caused the market to dramatically drop. 

  Right after Pesach, Weiss, his wife, and his children decided to drive down, for a week or two, to Orlando, Fla., where his in-laws have been making a Pesach program, Treitel Ventures, for the past seven years. 

       Before the Treitels launched their Pesach program in Orlando, they had owned King of the Sea, which was an upscale fish store that also served grilled fish, other prepared foods, such as kugels, and sushi to go in Flatbush.

    “They had very good sushi,” Weiss explained. “They were known for it.”

   When “sushi stations,” became all the rage at simchas, the Treitels were one of the first to ones to provide them, and Weiss was the one who organized the sushi chefs, the fresh fish, and the vegetables for the events.

   “Because of my experiences organizing the popular sushi platters for simchas, a friend of mine, who knew that the real estate market was down, told me to bring down a few sushi chefs and sell sushi in Orlando,” remembered Weiss.

    “My friend had said to me, ‘Avrumi, you need to make a parnassah. Only you can pull it off,’” and that gave Weiss the confidence to start selling fresh sushi from the garage of his family’s rented home in Orlando, where by Shavuous, 600 frum families had gathered Orlando, to wait out the lockdown in the sunshine.     

     After Weiss found the employees he wanted to work with him in Orlando, and, Baruch Hashem, his sushi business took off, the Weiss family ended up staying in Orlando for six months, coming back to Boro Park only when the yeshivas re-opened in Fall, so their children could return to school.

    In October, when Boro Park became a red zone, however, and the schools shut down again, the Weisses headed back to Orlando for two weeks over Sukkos.

  “People loved the sushi so much, they made me crazy to come down,” said Weiss, who added that it was hard to leave Orlando because his sushi had cultivated a large following.

    For instance, Weiss recalled that one prominent Jewish family from Jacksonville twice made the two and half hour drive down to Orlando, just for his sushi. 

   “They also wanted me to cater their son’s lavish bar mitzvah,” said Weiss, who wasn't able to do it.

  One specialty of King of the Sea that Weiss recreated in Orlando was the Jumbo Spider Roll, which features kani, which is a white fish that resembles crab, cooked salmon, carrots, and tempura.

  “The Spider Roll was a big hit in Orlando, and we are going to have that, plus a lot of specialty rolls, and other interesting rolls, such as the house specialty, which is called, “The Weissabi Roll.

   “We are creating the new menu as we speak.”

   Sushi platters of 14 rolls of sushi, which serves seven to eight people cost $100 platters, and Weissabi will be giving away free doughnuts with some orders that are made before Chanukah begins.

   Sushi lovers can call or WhatsApp 347.484.6089.