Sushi, Daiquiris, and Dreams: Pete Zimmer’s Entrepreneurial Journey

What happens when you blend the sophisticated art of sushi with the vibrant spirit of New Orleans daiquiris? Pete Zimmer, the mastermind behind Ajian Sushi and the newly unveiled Daq Shack, joins us to reveal how his trips to daiquiri shops in the Big Easy inspired him to create a unique dining experience in Tuscaloosa. In this engaging episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast, Pete gives us an inside look at his journey from a challenging childhood to becoming a successful entrepreneur. We dive into the logistics of serving alcoholic beverages under Alabama state laws and Pete’s aspirations to join the entertainment district.

Ever wondered how poverty could fuel ambition? Pete opens up about his upbringing in a family of seven and how those early hardships shaped his drive to succeed. Learn about his innovative build-your-own sushi concept with cooked proteins that challenges common misconceptions about sushi. We also get a glimpse into Pete's personal life, including his newfound love for tennis and quality family time. Stick around to discover how you can nominate your favorite local businesses for future episodes and stay connected with Pete’s ventures on social media. This episode is packed with inspiring stories and practical insights, making it a must-listen for anyone interested in local entrepreneurship and community spirit. #GNPNorthport #AjianSushi #DaqShack #TuscaloosaSushi #Sushi #Tuscaloosa #SushiRolls #Daiquiris #TuscaloosaLocal #TtownSushi #TtownFoodie #Foodie #TuscaloosaFoodie #EatLocal #TuscaloosaDaiquiris

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Patricia Blondheim.

Speaker 2: 0:15

Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. I'm your host, patricia Blondheim, and today we have Good Neighbor Pete Zimmer, and Pete is the owner of Asian and the Dack Shack on University Boulevard. Pete, how are you today?

Speaker 3: 0:31

I'm doing very well, thank you. How are you today, Patricia?

Speaker 2: 0:33

I'm doing terrific. Thank you. Now we all know about Asian. You're across the street from the new Bryant Bank, there on University Boulevard, very close to Innisfree. There on University Boulevard, very close to Innisfree and you've got that great sushi going on there. But new to this is the Dak Shack. Would you like to tell me a little bit about that?

Speaker 3: 0:55

Certainly so. I opened Asian Sushi about seven years ago, and and there's a space next door to me that has been occupied by a couple different neighbors over the years and it became available back in December, and I kicked around the idea of doing something there and finally decided that from my visits down to New Orleans, where I would walk past these daiquiri shops that had machines lined up with nice bright neon colors of different daiquiris and always lured me in for one or two, that I would do the same thing here and and so now we're opening the Dak Shack next door to Asian Sushi.

Speaker 2: 1:35

So tell me, how is? How is this going to work? Or are people going to be able to to carry these um alcoholic drinks around?

Speaker 3: 1:46

Um, they'll be around, able to carry them around my restaurant unfortunately not around town yet, but we're working on that. So I was told by the state uh of alabama liquor department that the state laws are a little bit uh archaic here still and and we're hopeful that they'll catch up to. You know, some of our neighbors like Louisiana and Mississippi in what they allow and don't allow. Unfortunately, we are right now just outside of the entertainment district, but we are working with the city in hopes of being included in that, so at least on Friday, saturday and Sunday hopefully very soon they'll be able to walk around with these in the district.

Speaker 2: 2:26

Well, the entertainment district. Its boundaries are being redrawn right now, hopefully to include the DAC shack, which is going to be oh my gosh. It's going to be so great you can go in and you can get your sushi, which I love, and big delicious daiquiri to go along with it. I think it's fabulous. Tell me a little bit about how Asian and the Dak Shack are going to work together.

Speaker 3: 2:54

Well, we were able to open a hole in the wall and put a doorway in between our dining room and the Dak Shack, so now I have three spaces. The dining room is in the middle, the sushi side is on one end and the Dax Shack is on the other, so you'll be able to walk in. If you're here to have sushi, you'll be able to walk in order sushi. Take it over to the dining room, grab your table, walk over to the Dax Shack, grab your daiquiri. Come back, sit down, enjoy your sushi and your daiquiri all at once. If you're here just for daiquiris, there's a separate entrance that you can come in. You know, we'll have 12 to 14 bar seats and a nice little lounge area with love seats and coffee tables where people can, you know, gather that way as well, and then we'll have a few tables outside on the patio where they'll be able to enjoy the nice summer weather and a cool daiquiri as well.

Speaker 2: 3:51

This is going to be the ultimate pregame destination. You can sit out there on the patio, watch everything go by, watch the world go by, have your sushi, have your daiquiri and then get up and cheer on the tide. I think it's fabulous. Tell our listeners about it. Yeah, go ahead.

Speaker 3: 4:15

Well, I was going to say that we're also going to be able to sell the non-alcoholic versions for tailgates and so on, where people can buy the daiquiri mix and then just take it down to their tailgate or wherever their space is pre-game, add their own rum or vodka or bourbon or whatever it is their alcoholic flavor and enjoy a nice frozen daiquiri that way as well.

Speaker 2: 4:40

So you are the ultimate tailgate destination now.

Speaker 3: 4:46

We hope so.

Speaker 2: 4:47

Tell our listeners about your journey, Pete. How did you get here?

Speaker 3: 4:51

Well, I'm a graduate of the Culinary Institute up in Hyde Park, new York, and I've been a chef and front of house manager and restaurant owner for the last almost 40 years now. I was in Cincinnati, where I was born and raised, and had a 230 seat full service barbecue and southern food restaurant up there. Up there and after seven years of working seven days a week, 12, 14, 15 hour days, I decided at my age and where I was in my life with my children being grown, that I really wanted to find something else to do that didn't occupy so much of my time and allowed me to kind of enjoy life a little bit. So I came up with the idea to move down here to Tuscaloosa. My son was a sophomore at the university at that point in time and opened up a build your own sushi concept, my barbecue restaurant in Cincinnati.

Speaker 3: 5:47

I catered the Cincinnati Bengals every Friday after practice and the year my son came here was the same year that the Bengals drafted AJ McCarron. So he and I became friends just because of the bond with the university and when I decided to move down here and do the sushi I asked him if he wanted to just get involved with me, and subsequently he did, and that's how we came up with the name Asian and we spell it AJ, so we have his initials in here and he no longer has any interest in the restaurant financially, but he is still a great supporter of ours and he actually just bought some property down in Sarah land and wants me to come down and open a second store down there.

Speaker 2: 6:32

So another sushi restaurant.

Speaker 3: 6:34

Another sushi restaurant and maybe we'll be able to attach a Dak Shack to that as well. If we do it, oh, that's wonderful. It kind of goes against the grain of my life.

Speaker 2: 6:49

And so what do you do for? I mean, you're a fun guy. I already know that. What do you do for fun when you're not working, now that you have this time that you've manufactured for yourself?

Speaker 3: 7:01

well I? I'm fortunate enough that when I moved down here, my daughter and son-in-law moved with us and and brought my grandson with me, and she has subsequently had a, a daughter and, and then, just three months ago, another son, so I have three grandchildren that I love to spend time with, and they live just one street over from me now, so I get there 32 seconds away, so I get to see them quite a bit. About four years ago I started playing tennis up at the Tuscaloosa Tennis Center in Alberta and I spend probably four or five days a week now, either early mornings or later in the evening playing tennis.

Speaker 2: 7:42

Wow, are you new to the tennis game, or is this kind of a lifelong thing for you?

Speaker 3: 7:49

No, I started just about four years ago, brand new to the game.

Speaker 2: 7:54

Wow, there's hope for me yet isn't there, Pete?

Speaker 3: 7:59

There certainly is. If I could do it, anyone can.

Speaker 2: 8:04

What about a challenge? I mean, you've come across a lot of challenges as an entrepreneur and with all the changes that you've made in your life, but is there any that kind of stand up as kind of a defining moment for you?

Speaker 3: 8:19

Well, you know, honestly, I think the biggest challenge in my life was um, you know, I was one of seven children and my parents divorced when I was 11.

Speaker 3: 8:28

Um, I was the sixth out of seven Um, so I grew up in a in a very um, you know, loving environment, but a very poor environment.

Speaker 3: 8:40

And I tell people now that you know, really the greatest gift that my parents ever gave me was poverty, because it drove me to really try to excel and I was the first one out of my family that decided to go to school.

Speaker 3: 8:55

After high school and I learned to trade and you know, really, just a lot of hard work and a lot of perseverance and a lot of long hours build that into a situation where some people who were more fortunate than me took notice of me and saw my desire and saw my ability and saw my drive. And when I decided it was time to go out and do something on my own, I still didn't have the money to do that and I was able to find investors who said to me they were customers of mine, who said you know what, I've watched you over the years and I said I'll be happy to put my money into your dream and allow it to go, and from that we've just kind of been able to. It's one that I now have bought all my investors out and proudly have all to myself.

Speaker 2: 10:06

What would you like our listeners to take away about the Dak Shack and about Asian sushi?

Speaker 3: 10:14

Well, I think you know the biggest misconception of sushi is people always think that sushi means raw fish, and sushi actually is a Japanese term for vinegared rice and, and so, you know, once you have the vinegared rice, there are different ways that you can present that. A roll is called a maki, and that's what we do here. But we were able to. You know, we're a build your own concept, but we're able to put. You know we, we have steak and chicken and able to. You know we're a build your own concept, but we're able to put, you know we, we have steak and chicken and and you know we have a lot of cooked proteins that you can put in there.

Speaker 3: 10:47

So for some people who are like, oh, I could never eat sushi, it's like no, come down here and all of a sudden you get, you get rice and you get steak you know grilled steak and you get fresh vegetables inside and and the sauces that you want and the toppings that you want, and all of a sudden people are like, oh, wow, you know what I really do like sushi. So I just would like people to understand that it's not just raw fish and hopefully the enticement of a nice cool frozen daiquiri will give them a reason to come down and at least give it a try and daiquiri will give them a reason to come down and at least give it a try.

Speaker 2: 11:26

Yeah, it's delicious.

Speaker 3: 11:27

Your sushi is delicious. How can listeners contact you? Our website is Asiansushicom and has kind of our story on there and a link to online order and so on. You can certainly stop by the store. I'm here every day that we're open. You know, we have a Facebook presence. We have Instagram, we have Snapchat, we have all of those different things that I don't know about because I'm old and never got it, but my daughter does a good job of running our social media for us, and so we're available in all of those formats, and so we're available in all of those formats, and hopefully soon we will add the DAC shack a whole entourage of social media sites, to that as well.

Speaker 2: 12:08

And I will link to all of that in the description underneath Pete, it was great. It was great. Thank you for telling us all about this brand new place. I'm real excited and it's been good to have you.

Speaker 3: 12:22

Well, thank you. We hope to see you all soon.

Speaker 1: 12:25

Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpbirminghamcom. That's gnpbirminghamcom, or call 205-952-0148.