In the heart of downtown Spokane sits Wave Sushi Island Grill, a laid-back restaurant located at the corner of First Avenue and South Howard Street.
Wave serves fresh sushi rolls alongside creations including sushi burritos, sushi pizza, poke nachos, crispy rice, a sushi crunchwrap and currently, the final special in its six-week series, the sushi hot dog.
Sarah Shore, the owner of Wave Sushi Island Grill, bought the business a couple of years ago after working at the restaurant years prior.
“I bought this business at the end of 2022 in partnership with my current business partner, who owns commercial real estate buildings,” Shore said. “I actually worked here about 13 years ago before leaving in 2015, and this place always held a special piece of my heart.”
Shore had the opportunity to create a community she had long dreamt about.
“It has been awesome forever,” Shore said. “It’s held many identities throughout the years, but it has always maintained a family atmosphere among staff and a fun experience for customers. When the opportunity came up, I jumped on it because I love it.”
A big part of the restaurant’s surge is the growth of Shore’s social media presence, which has been one of the biggest factors in bringing attention to the restaurants.
“It’s been huge lately,” Shore said. “It’s newer for us — especially for me since I’m not a TikToker myself. It has become the primary driving force behind our recent increase in sales.”
The challenge, at first, for Shore was drawing customers into her business, but that changed quickly after her accounts for the restuarant started gaining followers.
“If you follow our accounts on Instagram, Facebook or TikTok, you’ve probably seen our viral sushi videos,” Shore said. “Originally, that was a desperate marketing test. We were getting tons of views, sometimes millions, and hundreds of thousands of likes and shares, but the dining room was still quiet. In the restaurant business, online views don’t matter unless people walk through the door.”
That problem led Shore to do something different. Due to the online interest, Shore decided it was best to launch short-term, exclusive deals.
“I came up with the idea to test whether social media could drive direct in-store sales by offering hyper-limited, one-week specials,” Shore said. “The first week, we featured a sushi burrito and doubled our sales for that week. It was way bigger than expected.”
Shore said the sushi burrito was already a hit on the standard menu.
“The funny part is that it was pure marketing strategy: the sushi burrito was identical to a sushi roll we had on our menu for 20 years,” Shore said. “We simply made it larger, cut it in half instead of eight pieces, and marketed it differently on the right platform.”
The idea was simple for Shore: take items that people know and imagine them through the realm of sushi.
“They are all trend-focused items,” Shore said. “We search TikTok for trending formats — like sushi burritos, sushi burgers or sushi tacos — where you take familiar dishes and reimagine them as sushi.”
Vanessa Parvey, a team member at Wave Sushi Island Grill, does not just love the food; she loves the music.
“My favorite part of the job is probably the music,” Parvey said. “Being able to just listen to this kind of music all day just makes you happy.”
On top of the music, Parvey said she recommends the blackened salmon and the gyudon beef.
Even though the six-week viral series is ending, Shore said she wants to keep the momentum they have built.
“The experiment was a huge success, so we’ll continue running limited specials using ingredients we already carry,” Shore said.
So if you are a sushi lover, definitely check out Shore’s social media, try some sushi and perhaps get featured on @thewavesushi on Instagram or on TikTok @thewavesushispokane.
AloJapan.com