Oaks Sushi Ko

 Gordon Ramsay efforts

to revamp Thousand Oaks 

Sushi Ko restaurant to air

By Lisa McKinnon

Members of the Hatae family have celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay to thank for the artwork now hanging over the fireplace and above the staircase of their two-story home in Thousand Oaks.

But the task of saving Sushi Ko, the eatery they moved from Bel Air to The Lakes shopping center in Thousand Oaks in 2005 and closed last summer, probably was too big even for the famous chef and his restaurant-makeover TV show, “Kitchen Nightmares,” to tackle, said Lisa Hatae.

“At that point we had nothing to lose; we already were going to the landlord and asking for relief,” Hatae said of opening the restaurant’s doors to Ramsay and a TV crew near the end of May 2009.

“We just thought of it a little too late,” she added with a laugh.

The results — some of them, anyway — will be seen when the Sushi Ko episode of “Kitchen Nightmares” makes its rescheduled, American-TV debut at 9 p.m. today on FOX.

Thanks to a social media acquaintance who lives in England, Hatae said that she, husband Akira Hatae and their children — Samson, 23, Hana, 21 and Summer, 12 — already have seen snippets of the episode as it appeared in the United Kingdom, where both Ramsay and the “Kitchen Nightmares” concept were born.

“I’m sure it’s going to be different when it airs here, but at least we’re prepared,” Hatae said, laughing again. “It shows all the negative things we assumed it was going to show.”

At least one person has seen an officially sanctioned version of the program, which was bumped from its original April 23 airdate by a Friday-night episode of “Glee.” Writing in the current issue of Us magazine, TV critic John Griffiths called the outcome of the Sushi Ko show “jubilant.”

“And it was,” Hatae said after hearing the description. “They threw us a gigantic party with taiko drummers and dressed us in kimonos. It was a whirlwind.”

The party was on top of the additional refrigeration Ramsay had installed at the restaurant and his gesture of bringing in master sushi chef Katsuya Uechi to inspire Akira Hatae to return to the kitchen, Lisa Hatae said.

But locals familiar with both the Ventura County restaurant scene and ongoing problems at The Lakes, a Caruso Affiliated-owned shopping center built on city-owned property next to the Civic Arts Plaza, know that any jubilation was short-lived.

Just a few weeks after the TV cameras departed, the Hataes learned that they were losing the lease to the Sushi Ko space, Lisa Hatae said. They closed the restaurant in early August, taking with them all the artwork that had been brought in as part of the restaurant’s makeover.

One of the pieces, a triptych of a blooming cherry tree that had been painted on the set by a “Kitchen Nightmares” producer, now hangs over the Hataes’ living room fireplace, just above a snapshot of Ramsay posing with family members.

A curtain of faux coral fashioned from hundreds of plastic strips dangles over the staircase railing, and photos taken by Samson Hatae in and around father Akira’s hometown in Japan cover a nearby wall.

Unbeknownst to the younger Hatae, who now works as a photography assistant in Hollywood, the show’s producers had the enlargements made after looking at travel and food photos posted on his website, http://www.samsonkhatae.com.

“I was very flattered that they did that,” said Samson Hatae. “It was a great idea that pointed to the connection between the family and the restaurant.”

“That was one of Gordon’s big things: ‘There’s an artist in this family, and no one knows it.’ And he was darn right,” said Lisa Hatae.

Today, the pieces will serve as decor for the “Kitchen Nightmares” viewing party that Hatae, now the general manager of the Denny’s Restaurant in Moorpark, is planning at home for friends and family.

“It’s a national TV commercial,” she said of the episode. “We don’t have a restaurant now, but we might in the future, when the economy turns around.”

And The Lakes? Due to filming restrictions, TV audiences won’t see a single, identifying body of water or carefully pruned iceberg rose bush during the show. But the center also has seen some transformations, with more to come.

The Sushi Ko space was filled in November by the delicatessen Nate ’n Al. Another restaurant, Sabor Cocina Mexicana, is under construction in a suite once occupied by Polacheck’s Jewelers. The former Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream site is being turned into a Blizz Frozen Yogurt.

And the Thousand Oaks City Council on Tuesday approved a $230,000 project to build 16 angled parking spaces at the front of the $18 million center, in hopes of improving business.