Farewell, Kado!

Sometime this morning this blog will pass the 30,000 hit mark in just over 10 months. I am stunned and honored.  Thank you, dear readers.

Kado (which means "corner" in Japanese according to my personal translator, Jennifer Minnigan Kuramochi)Japanese Steakhouse closed for good on September 1st.  I learned of this when Nina Mock, one of our former youth here in Tampa, sent Marilyn a Facebook message letting us know.  Nina and her family actually dined with the Dona family and the great people at Kado on their final night.  I have lots of great memories from Kado, and I wanted to take this opportunity to share a few of them.  Below you see Justin Overstreet, Travis Aiken and Cory Vetter from WMUMC enjoying a meal around the hibachi grill.  Many friends sat in those seats between 2003 and 2010.

The restaurant was hidden away in the corner of a strip shopping center on Hillsborough Ave. in Tampa, and for the first year or so we lived here we never knew it existed.  We learned of it from one of our Youth Counselors, Ashley Shapiro, who took a group there on what I believe was a Girl's Night Out event.  They raved about the food, and soon we went back for a SHO-Time.  I was hooked.  In the years that followed I ate there many times with my family and many times with the youth group.  I went there for lunch with my small group a couple of times.  When Josh Fry, Sarah Crudele, Adam Hill and Andrew Rogers would come over from Kissimmee to visit, we would go to Kado.  At one point we sold fund-raising Graceland discount cards that were good for 10% off, so our frequency of visits increased even more.  We loved the place- and they loved us.

The restaurant also hosted several special moments.  I will never forget the night Nina yelled at the chef for letting the rice on her plate touch the other stuff, and he in return harassed her to no end!  I remember Travis always getting the fried ice cream.  I will not forget the "onion volcanoes" they made to entertain Will when he was small, and the rest of us when we were not.  We ate there with many of the youth as a "farewell" dinner when my time at WMUMC came to an end.  We met many of our former Youth Ministry Team members there just before I left for Waycross.  When I came back to Tampa to load the truck and move my family to Waycross, Trinity UMC's associate pastor David White (UBD) drove the truck for us- and we took him to dinner at Kado after a long day of packing.  And just last October we met friends from the FUMC-K days there for a celebration of my 50th birthday (see picture).  It was a significant place for us, and it will be missed.

The last time my family visited Kado (a couple of months ago) we had a long visit with Maria, the owner who had been so kind to us over the years.  She told up that business was way down and that they were hurting financially.  It was only a few weeks back that Marilyn and I were talking about going, and I expressed fear that they might not still be there.  And now Kado is no more.  Our prayers go out to Maria and her family.  They have tremendous faith in God, and I know they will persevere.  I know that for me, that little "corner" of Tampa was a bright spot where I shared many laughs and a whole lot of wonderful food with some great people.  Here's to you, Kado!  You are gone but will not be forgotten...

Because of Jesus,