When stepping inside Palm Coast's newest Japanese fusion restaurant,
"wow" is usually the first thing out of most customers' mouths.
Red Sphere Sushi and Sake Lounge's slick interior instantly transports customers to a faraway place. It has the industrial warmth of a warehouse converted to a hip hangout, belonging more in New York City than in Flagler County, Florida.
The brainchild of two brothers from Orlando, Vic and Hoi Nguyen, Red Sphere was built on 12-hour days, lots of sweat and a vision of something different.
After moving to Palm Coast four years ago, Hoi grew to like the slow-paced life of the city, but still missed a good meal and Palm Coast's chain restaurants weren't satisfying enough.
Before Red Sphere, Hoi opened up the Millennia Day Spa in Orlando, giving him a background in managing, which he would need to open a place of his own. During a visit, Vic, then a head chef at a sushi restaurant in Tampa, realized the potential for success of classy cuisine in Palm Coast, and Red Sphere was born. They chose Roma Court - on Palm Coast Parkway - because it offered a location that was a step above a strip mall both in architecture and in style.
"We saw the need for a good restaurant with nice ambiance," said Hoi, the younger brother at age 28, and manager of the front of the restaurant. But when the brothers began to think about how they wanted the restaurant to look, they decided to do the work themselves.
"Anyone can order a table and a chair and a bar out of a catalog," said Vic, 29, standing behind a bar made from a huge plank of cypress, and surrounded by dark wooden bar shelves they refurbished themselves.
While learning to build their restaurant, they also learned to build furniture.
Hoi and Vic hand made every piece of furniture inside the restaurant by hand.
The dark rough-hewn tables and booths were custom made from ancient cypress and cedar wood and offer inviting space for a dinner out. In Japanese culture, wood is revered for its warmth and beauty.
A Japanese proverb says that a tree has two lives - one when it is growing and another when it is made into a useful object. By being creative and employing some true "do-it-yourself" spirit, the Nguyens brought truckloads of dead wood back to life inside their restaurant.
