The owner of a new Asian fusion restaurant on Bethlehem Pike has taken an interest in his new community.
And his restaurant, South Ocean, has already hooked some early patrons.
Ian Lo settled in Flourtown because he felt there was a place in the community for creative Chinese and Japanese cuisine, he said at an opening celebration Nov. 21.
To show he means business, he features a Flourtown roll: pan-friend yellow-tail tuna and salmon sprinkled with tobiko and scallions and served on a bed of seasoned seaweed salad.
“We try to use different kinds of ingredients so it’s a modern Asian cuisine,” he said.
Lo wanted an early opportunity to meet the community and asked the Realtor for the property, Dan Helwig, also a member of the Springfield Rotary Club, to invite some community members for an opening celebration and a first taste.
“It’s a good way to introduce some of the retail clientele to the area,” Helwig said. “I welcome them to the community and I hope that others will stop by and support all of the business in the community.”
Helwig, the inspiration for the DH sushi roll, said his office colleagues have been buying lunch at South Ocean at least once or twice a week.
The diversity South Ocean contributes is an important addition to Flourtown’s economy, because variety makes the town interesting and attracts people to show and use the local offices, he said.
“Having a good selection of restaurants does foster the rental of office space because it gives more of a broad base atmosphere to the community,” he said.
South Ocean’s opening comes during an effort to attract tenants people use regularly, like restaurants, salons and cell phone stores, Al Comly Jr., landlord for the property, said.
“We’re happy to have them here. I think the hope was by having another restaurant we really encourage people to come here. Now they have choices,” he said. “We had to give a little thought as far as what we thought would be a good fit and we’re happy with how it turned out.”
Before it was a shopping center, the land was a farm owned by the Comly family, he said.
The Acme was built in 1958 and tenants moved in within a few years, one of them a sporting goods store that occupied the current South Ocean space for about 30 years, he said.
The new tenant serves Asian cuisine with French presentation.
Lo, who has 20 years in the industry, previously owned and operated two restaurants in Bucks County, Mount Fiji in Huntington Valley and Ichiban in East Norriton Plaza.
He sold those businesses for a break before embarking on South Ocean, he said.
Most of the chefs at South Ocean were trained in New York City, he added. Mark Taruna said he studied at the French Culinary School in Manhattan and is trained in South American and Spanish Cuisine.
One of his favorite dishes to prepare is crispy salt and pepper shrimp and a spicy tuna pizza, made from tortilla, spicy mayo, honey, slices of tuna, red onion and garlic oil.
Jim and Susan Mohr, former Springfield residents now of Lederach, used to travel 70 miles round-trip to Philadelphia for good sushi. They’re thinking about buying South Ocean gift certificates, which they may be able to do with the gas money they plan to save now that a good restaurant moved close to home.
The sushi melted in their mouths, they said.
“The presentation that they’re doing is just so easy on the eyes. You just want to taste everything, “ Jim said.
“This is absolutely amazing,” Susan said.
South Ocean, located at 1664 Bethlehem Pike, is open 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday — Saturday and 12 to 10 p.m. Sunday. In addition to in-house dining, the restaurant offers catering and takeout.
11/26/2009
