San Sushi returns: Cockeysville-to-Towson institution heads to Main Street in Westminster

San Sushi is bringing its flavor-focused, American-style sushi and scratch-made sauces to Main Street in Westminster this fall, marking its first Maryland location since Towson closed in 2021.

Chef Bruce Sesum opened the original San Sushi in Cockeysville in 1995. In 1997, he opened in Towson, operating under two names at once, San Sushi Too and Thai One On, which remained a fixture there until it closed in 2021 amid pandemic restrictions and rising rent.

Sesum is relaunching in a historic Victorian house at 172 East Main Street in Westminster, with longtime business partner Anita Wong. He'll run the kitchen, and Wong is the manager of what she and Sesum laughingly called "everything else," including front-of-house operations, administration and the business's finances.

The sauces are made from scratch, not sourced from a distributor. "They still stick with the family recipe," Wong said. "Even though now you can buy all those different sauces … tempura sauce, teriyaki sauce, drunken noodle sauce, pad Thai sauce, we don't buy."

Sesum describes their from-scratch approach as a mom-and-pop one. "Everybody has their own signature," he said. "There's always a story behind why I made it that way. I like flavors," he said.

It also shapes what stays off the menu. Sesum is skeptical of trends that trade taste for presentation, pointing to soy paper wraps as an example. "I don't use soy wrap, I try not to, because it's great ambiance, but to me, it doesn't have taste," he said. "It's not practical for me. I try not to play with soy wrap, that's my pet peeve."

Sesum said longtime customers have proven the approach works, following him past other restaurants to get his specific flavors. "They pass a lot of good restaurants along the way just to come all the way to me," he said.

Wong and Sesum have known each other for more than 20 years. While Sesum built his career in restaurant kitchens, Wong spent about a decade in the corporate world. In the years since Towson closed in 2021, she's listened to Sesum talk about wanting a space of his own again, and when she saw the passion hadn't faded, she pushed him to act. "Let's do it," she told him. They spent two years scouting locations together.

The division of labor comes with plenty of teasing. Sesum jokingly calls Wong his "management and sugar mama," who holds the purse strings whenever he needs "money to buy some toys for the kitchen." Wong laughs off the label and insists Sesum is the real boss, though Sesum counters that he's more like the restaurant's front-facing mascot.

The search for the ideal new location took them across Maryland, in pursuit of a space with character rather than a strip mall or shopping center. Before settling on Westminster, they looked at properties in Havre de Grace, Hagerstown, Ellicott City, Sykesville, Odenton and Catonsville.

Their realtor, who had previously represented a seller on the Main Street Victorian that San Sushi will now call home, flagged the building for them last fall. Sesum and Wong made several quiet trips to Westminster in October and November to scout the property from the outside and get a feel for the town, stopping for a meal at Liquid Library on their first visit.

Sesum and Wong said they were struck by how friendly and welcoming people were, and the combination of historic charm and small-town feel convinced them they'd found their spot. Meeting the property's landlord added an unexpected layer to the decision: the landlord, they learned, had personal ties to Sesum's brother.

About two and a half months ago, Sesum and Wong moved from Glen Burnie to Westminster to fully commit to the new location.

Sesum and Wong see their restaurant filling a real void in Main Street's dining options, noting a stretch between Liquid Library on one end and Burgerland on the other, with few sit-down dining options in between. They're positioning the restaurant as an anchor for that stretch, hoping to draw and hold foot traffic for the surrounding block.

Don't expect gutted walls or a sledgehammer renovation. Sesum and Wong are keeping the building's Victorian character intact, and kitchen infrastructure left over from its previous life as Rare Opportunity Bakehouse and Starling’s Cafe is staying largely as is; their focus has been on moving in their own equipment.

The new sushi bar will sit on the right just inside the main double doors, positioned against the front windows. The placement is intentional: Sesum wants people walking by on the sidewalk to see the chefs at work and know the restaurant is open.

The building's layout splits naturally into two moods. The side with the historic fireplace will be a quieter, more intimate dining room, while the sushi bar side is being built for a louder, more social crowd. The one structural addition is a small partition wall in the kitchen, moving the dishwasher station closer to the line for efficiency and blocking its noise from the dining room, while keeping the kitchen semi-open to view.

Sesum also wants to bring back a slower style of hospitality, pushing back against restaurants that rush diners out or push a payment tablet in front of them the moment they finish eating. On good-weather days, the restaurant's porch and sidewalk patio area will double as a place where guests can linger without feeling rushed.

When Sesum and Wong first planned the relaunch, they branded it "Sushi San," a modern twist on the original name. A cease-and-desist letter from a large corporation forced a change. Rather than treat it as a setback, the pair took it as a sign to return to the restaurant's original name, the one Sesum first opened in Cockeysville over 30 years ago: San Sushi.

Sesum started working in restaurant kitchens at 17 and has spent 30 years in Maryland's dining scene. His Towson restaurant built a loyal, multigenerational following: regulars who were college students in the late 1990s and early 2000s later brought their own children to his tables. Over his career, Sesum said he's served four generations of the same family at one sitting. Since moving to Carroll County, he's already been recognized by former Towson regulars while out at Baugher's Orchard.

Wong, who describes herself as a lifelong city girl, said the change of pace has been one of the more refreshing parts of the move to Westminster. "It's busy, but not busy," she said. "Everyone is not like the city people, stressed, angry. Here, people are friendly, nice, chill, and understanding. Everyone talks to each other. We go to Baugher's, and everyone says hi to you first."

Sesum and Wong have spent their first months in Westminster building ties to the community rather than waiting for opening day. They walk Main Street regularly, entered the Carroll County Biz Challenge and used its meet-and-greet to introduce their concept to local residents and entrepreneurs.

The couple met Westminster Mayor Mona Becker on their first visit to Covalent Spirits, where the owners of the Main Street craft distillery and tasting room made the introduction. Sesum and Wong said nearby business owners have offered advice and local history along the way.

San Sushi plans to be closed on Mondays. Sunday hours will also start later than the rest of the week. The menu will carry over Thai staples from the Towson location, including lemongrass soup, drunken noodles and pad Thai, alongside the sushi program Sesum is building out in the new space.

Sesum pointed to a nearby butcher as one of the practical upsides of the move, allowing him to buy smaller, fresher quantities instead of storing large amounts of meat over time. "I'm very happy I got a butcher real close, I know those guys," he said. "With a local butcher, I say, hallelujah, that'll be great, so I don't have to buy a lot and save it for a week. I can buy limited and be done with it."

Wong said the local supply chain has made it easy to keep ingredients close to home, and to return the favor to a community that's welcomed them. "Locally sourced is not a hard thing to do here," she said. "Everyone is so supportive, so we want to do the same by supporting local businesses."

Sesum and Wong are in the final stretch of the city's approval process. Their architect has been revising the restaurant's drawings, and those revisions are now being submitted for final approval of the building permit. Once that's stamped, their contractor is ready to start the interior build-out right away, followed by a health department review and a liquor board hearing.

Sesum and Wong describe the current phase as a slow-moving "waiting game" of paperwork, but they expect the process to move quickly from here, keeping them on track for a fall opening.

Photos: Provided by Anita Wong.