Audrey Brink, Asst. Sports Editor
Before any students have made their way to the dining hall for breakfast, Winn Thant has already begun making sushi.
Around 4 a.m., she begins preparing the rice and fresh ingredients. By 5 a.m., the food preparation is underway, assuring that the first batches will be delivered to different markets by 10 a.m.
JSN is a family-owned and operated business in Columbus. Owner Nicky Htun has worked in the food service industry since 1994 and spent 20 years working for a large sushi company. This job required him to travel across the country setting up sushi bars. He eventually decided he no longer wanted to spend so much time traveling and started his own company.
“I started to target universities, hospitals and offices,” Htun said.
JSN led him to Denison University. The company began providing sushi for the campus toward the end of 2024.
For Htun, working at Denison is an example of how every university has its own personality. After years of working within schools and universities, he has found that no two locations are exactly the same.
“What makes it different is that none of them have an identical setup,” Htun said. Htun runs the business while Thant is the chef.
“She is the best sushi chef in town, and she’s been working with me for more than 20 years. We’re like family, brother and sister,” Htun said.
The sushi is a hit among students; however, operating a sushi bar on a college campus comes with its own unique challenges, one of them being the lack of space.
The sushi is prepared in The Nest’s kitchen, Denison’s late-night food option in Slayter. This space is shared with several other operating businesses on campus. Since this is away from the markets where the sushi is sold, there is little opportunity for interaction with students.
“If we could make sushi behind the counter and serve it to the student, it would be better,” Htun said.
More student interaction would give the chefs a chance to take custom orders and learn directly from the students regarding what they want. Instead, JSN has to watch Denison’s preferences by recording what sells and what remains at the end of the day.
However, Denison has gradually revealed its preferences in other ways.
“Salmon, buckeye rolls, and veggie seem to be the favorites,” Thant said.
She revealed her favorite was also a buckeye roll, prepared with cream cheese, imitation crab, and avocado.
To Thant, the process of learning students’ preferences and patterns is important. Early preparation is not simply a matter of convenience.
“The quality of the sushi depends on making it fresh each day. Rice can lose quality when it is stored in a cooler for too long,” Thant said.
Once the first batch is prepared, the sushi is taken to different locations on campus. In the afternoon, Thant returns to refill the cases as needed.
But the limited space and lack of direct interaction can sometimes make that process difficult.
If the sushi sells faster than expected, they may not know immediately. Htun explained that because the chef is working upstairs and the sushi is being sold downstairs, there is no constant way to monitor how quickly the cases are emptying.
By the time another batch can be prepared and brought downstairs, the busiest period of the day may already be over.
Still, Htun and Thant describe the experience of working at Denison as overwhelmingly positive.
“There’s always hiccups here and there,” Htun said. “But all the hiccups that we have are solvable. We’re satisfied, and I am happy with that.”