TE Restaurant Shake Up: BYOB Out-Sushi In

Grappa Cafe is closed. A sushi restaurant is moving in.

There's no seating at the moment inside the restaurant. It's being remodled to make way for a new owner's vision of what dining should be at the corner of Paoli Court and Lancaster Ave./Route 30 in Paoli (Next to the Starbucks at the Paoli Train Station).

Grappa reportedly closed several weeks ago with little fanfare. A restauranteur in Berwyn tells Patch she found out when someone came in seeking work, He said he needed a job because he went to work at Grappa one day in November and saw the closed sign on the door.

Restaurants closing down with little or no warning in Paoli (or anywhere else in the industry) is not uncommon. Last Christmas, Saxby's Coffee closed down on Christmas Eve with only a few days notice. (There's now a cell phone store in that location), Jake's Frozen Custard shut down without notice in July 2011. Nudy's Cafe opened in August 2012 in that building. Grappa Cafe now joins the litany.

BYOB Out-Sushi In

Wednesday evening Ken Cao and a crew of workers were inside the former Grappa space, preparing to open Cao's new restaurant. The menu will be authenitic Japanese sushi.

Sushi Nami is schedule to open in early to mid January. Cao hasn't set a specfic date yet.

Cao, who has been a sushi chef in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut is the chef and the face of his family's newest restaurant. He says they also own other restaurants in other states in the region.