Kyoko Bannai: keen for KoKo Kitchen.

• Author: Shelley, Barb
• Position: People - Biography

SIX YEARS AGO, while excavating under a dilapidated, 100-year-old building that she was determined to transform into a successful, authentic Japanese restaurant, Kyoko Bannai hit gold--well, not literally; it was actually a spring. While other first-time business owners might have immediately abandoned the idea to locate in the ramshackle building, Bannai was inspired. A Japanese maxim says if you hit water, it bodes well for the business.

"It was a good sign," Bannai says warmly, eyes shining. Her optimism and belief that she was doing the right thing had been tested much earlier when, the day after she bought the rundown former mini mart in what was then the blighted "Block 18" (Salt Lake's 700 South and 300 Fast), someone threw a rock through the window.

"I was being welcomed," she laughs. With an uncanny knack for bringing people together, she was key to uniting the neighborhood for further revitalization. " I didn't want to just start a business to make money," she recalls. "I wanted to contribute healthy, home-cooked Japanese food to the neighborhood. I wanted to help the neighborhood learn about Japanese culture. A neighborhood business should be that way--we should all help each other."

Her business theory worked. During construction, residents volunteered their time at night to watch over her property, reporting suspicious activity to the police, and allowing completion of the renovation, Her improvements inspired others who soon began their own beautification projects. On opening day, she invited the entire neighborhood to enjoy Koko Kitchen's cuisine. Neighbors soon became her regular customers, as have airline pilots, police officers, students, tourists, people who have lived in Japan and anyone who craves the authenticity of true Japanese home cooking.

"As a child in Japan, I was taught that if I was kind, in some form, it Would come back to me," says Bannai, acknowledging her neighbors' loyalty and smiling modestly at the accolades and awards on the restaurant's wall for her efforts to revitalize the area. "The people of Salt Lake are down-to-earth and kind," she says. "I feel wanted here." Her ability to unite people was evidenced again recently when loyal neighbors testified on her behalf at a city meeting so that she could add an open air patio, expediting a process that is More typically prolonged and, at its worst, publicly rancorous.

Now an established part of the neighborhood, the Koko Kitchen menu is expansive, with...