There are two things about quick-service staple Edo Japan that may come as a surprise: the first is that the company was founded and remains headquartered right here in Calgary; the second is that it celebrates its 45th anniversary this year.
While Chinese cuisines have been a cornerstone of Calgary’s dining landscape, Japanese food, specifically, was not on the radars of most non-Japanese Canadians until the latter part of the 20th century. Even in 1979, when the first Edo Japan opened, the (allegedly Vancouver-invented) California roll had yet to be popularized and the original Shogun miniseries was still a year away from capturing the imaginations of emerging Japanophiles across North America.
Still, Reverend Susumu Ikuta, a Buddhist minister whose family first settled in Alberta in the late 1930s, took it upon himself to share Japanese culture with other Calgarians. Unconventionally, he did it by opening a quick-service teppanyaki kiosk in the food court of Southcentre Mall.
“The Reverend had two higher purposes in 1979 when he opened up the first Edo,” says current Edo Japan President and CEO Dave Minnett. “He wanted to bring Japanese cuisine to Canadians, but there was a second mission, which was a vision of giving aspiring entrepreneurs a business opportunity and a leg up through franchising.”
Forty-five years and 200 locations later, Minnett attributes the company’s success and longevity to a couple of things. First, there’s Canada’s continuing thirst for Asian flavours at a range of price points — the sukiyaki beef and teriyaki chicken that would have felt new to many Calgarians in 1979 are now widely embraced across cultures as comfort foods. Beyond that, Edo has always been remarkably ahead of quick-service (a.k.a., fast-food) trends: the company was specializing in fresh and (relatively) healthy made-to-order meals well before current darlings like Chipotle hit the scene.
Edo has also been clever in shepherding its growth, expanding from food courts to streetside dine-in restaurants in the early 2000s, introducing dishes like sushi and ramen, launching a smartphone app for easy ordering, and growing the number of franchises across Canada.
But, even with more than 11 million meals served annually, the heart of what Edo does has never really changed. That would be cooking meat and veggies on a teppan grill with the same techniques and sauces Reverend Ikuta used almost half a century ago, and bringing the world closer together.
