House of Japan, a franchise of Jiang and Family Inc., which opened its first restaurant in Atlanta 65 years ago, has entered the Connecticut market, staking out in Byram the southwesternmost site of public commerce in the state and in all New England.
The town of Greenwich, which includes Byram, has commercial enterprises farther west, including all of Tamarack Country Club. The commercial zone on American Lane is also more westerly, beside Interstate 684 in that forested right angle of the Connecticut panhandle that juts into New York. American Lane hosts Blue Sky Studios, Citation Shares Holding, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Paloma Partners, Tudor Investment Corp. and Verition Group on the former American Can campus. There is also an in-house cafeteria there.
But for a true taste of the border ”” with an active pedestrian flow between New York and Connecticut ”” Mitsuba Sushi & Teriyaki holds bragging rights. A person savoring a California roll there could easily hold an interstate conversation with a fisherman on the Port Chester, N.Y., side.
The cozy eat-in and to-go restaurant”™s front door is 50 feet from the tidal Byram River; its west wall half that distance.
Kent Jiang, the owner and member of the founding Jiang family, ticked off Florida, Tennessee, Ohio and Indiana as states with a Jiang Family franchise. Each has a unique name, he said, hence Mitsuba. The address is 99 Mill St.
“We opened June 1,” Jiang said. “Business has been good,” he said. “We find the people are nice ”” it”™s pleasant to talk to them. It”™s good to be here.”
