.floatimg-left-hort { float:left; } .floatimg-left-caption-hort { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:300px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-vert { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right:15px; width:200px;} .floatimg-left-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; font-size: 12px; width:200px;} .floatimg-right-hort { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px;} .floatimg-right-caption-hort { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px; font-size: 12px; } .floatimg-right-vert { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px;} .floatimg-right-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; font-size: 12px; } .floatimgright-sidebar { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; border-top-style: double; border-top-color: black; border-bottom-style: double; border-bottom-color: black;} .floatimgright-sidebar p { line-height: 115%; text-indent: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar h4 { font-variant:small-caps; } .pullquote { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 150px; background: url(http://www.dmbusinessdaily.com/DAILY/editorial/extras/closequote.gif) no-repeat bottom right !important ; line-height: 150%; font-size: 125%; border-top: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid;} .floatvidleft { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatvidright { float:right; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;}
From lying in sand, to driving in snow.

And that wasn’t even the biggest worry for 18-year-old, lifelong Hawaiian Cy Gushiken. It was plenty hot over Gushiken’s grill as he prepared to take the teppanyaki-style cooking test in 1985 in front of the bigwigs at Shogun Japanese Steakhouse in West Des Moines.

“You get three chances to pass the cooking test, and if you don’t pass on the third try, you are done,” said Gushiken about the final step in a training process that prepares potential chefs to perform dazzling cooking shows that include aerial stunts with shrimp, eggs and steak on a grill right in front of customers.

“So if you want to take the test, you tell them you are ready – you better be ready,” he said. “Lots of times, people get nervous and panic.”

Not Gushiken, who, as cool as the February snowstorm that welcomed him to Iowa, passed the test on his first try with flying colors – or flying shrimp, if you will.

“It’s been a long road to get where I’m at now,” he said.

But a fast one. Three years after Gushiken followed his brother to the mainland for a job at Shogun, he was promoted to second chef, then head chef, before buying the restaurant with a partner in 1996, changing the name to Ohana Steakhouse and completing the 14-year transition from nervous trainee to sole owner in 1999.

Not bad for a kid who had never, before coming to Iowa, even stepped one sandal in a restaurant.

Gushiken, however, isn’t done. He’s moving from grilling steaks to boiling pasta. From chopsticks to breadsticks. From tossing shrimp to tossing meatballs.

OK, so the meatballs will stay on the plate, but you get the picture. Gushiken added his second restaurant when he purchased Cosi Cucina, an Italian restaurant in Clive, from his longtime friend Devin Rowling in October 2008.

“It was a tough time,” Gushiken said of the not-so-friendly economic climate. “But I think you take certain chances, and if a good opportunity comes around, you have to grab it while it’s there.”

Gushiken, who was a regular customer at Cosi Cucina and loved the food, said most of the funds he had for Cosi Cucina were absorbed in the first six months doing lots of maintenance and getting the restaurant up to his standards for operation.

“It is slowly coming along,” Gushiken said. “So we are moving on, getting close to about 10 months or so into it, and I think we’ve worked out a lot of things.”

Will Bliss, who has been at Cosi Cucina for four years and has served as the executive chef for more than a year, said new equipment, like a brand-new convection oven, was much needed, and that when Gushiken first took control of the restaurant, Gushiken told him he didn’t want to make any major changes.

Gushiken is still putting in most of his time at Ohana Steakhouse, but kept a majority of the Cosi Cusina staff and put his trust in Bliss and his managers to continue running things while he slowly ramps up his efforts at the new restaurant.

“Being that I’ve done this (teppanyaki) style of cooking for 24 1/2 years, everything is pretty automatic for me; everything is very familiar,” Gushiken said. “Everything over there (Cosi Cucina) is a new kind of a situation. It is more of a normal restaurant.”

Gushiken saw an opportunity with Cosi Cucina, and hopes to apply the lessons he learned during his lowest days during the first couple of years of ownership at Ohana Steakhouse.

When he bought the restaurant in 1996, business was slow. And when debts started piling up, and his partner left the restaurant in 1999, it looked as if Gushiken was going to have to turn off the grill and close the doors.

But after his partner left, Gushiken went to a seminar to better understand how advertising worked.

“I never really did much advertising, didn’t understand exactly how it worked,” he said. “It is kind of hard when you don’t understand stuff to just throw money into something when you don’t know what you are doing.”

Marketing saved Ohana Steakhouse and pulled it out of debt. Gushiken made himself the star of Ohana Steakhouse commercials, and branded himself as “That Guy” to local viewers.

“If you understand it, and you really believe in it, that’s what really helps businesses,” Gushiken said. “You need to market yourself. We started advertising a little bit, and as I could, I just kept increasing a little at a time.”

And so did the number of customers.

With all the new restaurants in West Des Moines and near Jordan Creek Town Center, competition has increased for the older Cosi Cucina.

“Cosi has been around for a while, and I think with everything moving out west, I don’t think they were advertising very much, they weren’t marketing themselves that much,” said Gushiken.

Cosi Cucina didn’t really do any marketing before Gushiken took over, but new commercials are running in an effort to make Cosi a prime destination – and it’s working.

Bliss said the restaurant has seen an increase in traffic, especially during lunches, and attributed the uptick to the commercials and the Ohana Steakhouse staff.

“I have a really good feeling, even about the next couple of months,” Bliss said. “Once we get back into the holiday season, I think business is going to be good. Not just for us, but for the business in general.

“I think good things are going to happen because of the Ohana guys.”

And when things go bad, unless you know it, you’ll never see the smile leave Gushiken’s face, said Ohana head chef Ken Hale.

“His smile looks a little bit different, but only if you know him,” said Hale. “He is usually smiling if and when he is having a tough time. He just holds on to problems, takes care of business and deals with it later.”

Gushiken, who is trying to spend more time with his wife, Tami, and two boys, ages 16 and 12, is spending a couple of days a week at Cosi Cucina learning how things work and becoming more comfortable getting to know his people.

“I wash dishes when I gotta, nothing is beneath me to do over there,” Gushiken said.

“I’m sweeping up the floor, doing dishes, and then I go over there and do stuff just to help the guys that are there.”

His knife skills are undisputed, but will he be flipping meatballs anytime soon?

“Nah … maybe not yet,” Gushiken said.