Genji, Billybob resume business after owner Omori takes his life

Despite the death of restaurant owner Hideo Omori last month, the Genji establishments in Center City and West Philadelphia Omori ran before his passing say business has been normal during the holiday period and both restaurants will remain open in Omori's memory. The late restaurateur founded Genji in University City 19 years ago. He later opened the Center City Genji, and also has co-owned Billybob -- which he transformed last fall into the Best of Billybob and Silk Road -- for about 10 years. The Tokyo-born Omori, 51, stabbed himself to death with a kitchen knife on December 14, police say. An employee found his body in a storage building behind the Genji Restaurant at 1720 Sansom Street. According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, police said last month that Omori had been despondent recently over financial woes. Family and close friends told police he was having trouble sleeping and was worried that he might have to lay off employees. In September, Omori had opened the Best of Billybob and Silk Road at 40th and Spruce streets, a merger of the two formerly separate restaurants that also features Le Bus baked goods, Torreo coffee and a Genji Sushi Express. Billybob, the West Philadelphia landmark sandwich shop known for its cheap alcohol and chicken cheesesteaks, turned more upscale after seeing its profits steadily drop. "It [was] old, beaten and unfashionable. It was time for a change," Omori told The Daily Pennsylvanian in September. Last week, Best of Billybob and Silk Road part-owner De Wong said financially, "everything is fine." Pointing to students who tote laptops to the cafe for study sessions, he added that he thinks business will continue to improve. The neighboring Genji -- the first of Omori's two Philadelphia-area sushi fixtures -- has not altered its operations since its founder's death. "The attitude and the reputation has remained the same," chef and part-owner of the University City Genji Restaurant Koichi Aoyama said Friday. Aoyama, who has worked at Genji for 15 years and likened Omori to a big brother, said he will try to keep the restaurant moving in the same fashion as Omori did for as long as the restaurant remains. "I am going to try to keep going," Aoyama said. Genji Manager John O agreed that the employees, many of whom have been with the restaurant for five or six years, were affected more than the customers. "If anything, something like [Omori's death] would try to make us work harder," O said. Omori's wife, Yuko, had shared ownership of the restaurants with her husband and now oversees them herself, according to Genji Restaurant management. In addition to the University and Center City restaurants, Omori had a sushi takeout station at Fresh Fields supermarkets in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Massachusetts.

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