Now with new ownership, Ichi Riki is in good – and familiar – hands.

The 2011 documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi – an instant classic – follows the daily rhythms of Jiro Ono, the sushi chef and proprietor of Sukiyabashi Jiro, the first sushi restaurant in the world to earn three Michelin stars (which were later revoked when the 10-seat, sushi-only restaurant, located in a Tokyo subway station, stopped taking reservations from the general public).

For Jiro, now 97 and still at it, sushi is more than a craft – it’s an art and a lifelong obsession. In the film, Jiro’s eldest son, Yoshikazu, who by tradition will one day take over the restaurant, tells the filmmakers his father made him train for five years on the proper way to make tamagoyaki – a slightly sweet Japanese omelet set atop sushi rice, nigiri-style – before he would let him serve it in his restaurant.

For Kiichi Yokota, who became the owner of Seaside’s Ichi Riki restaurant on Dec. 1, 2022, and his father Shige, a Japanese immigrant and sushi chef who’s worked at Ichi Riki for nearly 40 years, there is at least one common thread with the relationship between Jiro and Yoshikazu: They’re a father-son team of sushi chefs working in the same restaurant, which they own (Kiichi’s name is on the title).

Shige (short for Shigeki), who just turned 65, is not fluent in English. Per Kiichi, he grew up in Zentsuji, a small city in Kagawa prefecture on the north coast of Shikoku, the smallest of Japan’s four major islands. In his teens, Shige migrated to Tokyo and started working at Tsukiji Market, which for decades was the world’s largest, most famous wholesale fish market.

While working there, Kiichi says, his father learned the ways of fish and developed a strong work ethic – the market opened at 4am. Shige immigrated to the U.S. in the early 1980s, and was already a skilled sushi chef when, in 1984, he started working at Ichi Riki, which opened in 1963 and is Monterey County’s oldest Japanese restaurant.

Kiichi says he didn’t see his dad much while he was growing up in Salinas – like now, Shige worked long hours, six days a week – but now that they work in the same restaurant, Kiichi can appreciate more than just his dad’s work ethic. “The small things are what I started to see,” he says.

Kiichi, who’s worked in sushi restaurants for about 15 years, since his early 20s, didn’t learn the art of sushi from his father. He learned it from Tomotsu Suzuki, the former owner and sushi chef at Crystal Fish in Monterey (Suzuki, also an alum of Tsukiji Market, retired at the beginning of last year and sold the restaurant). Kiichi started there in 2010 as a dishwasher, graduated to prep and bussing, then making sushi two to three years in.

He left Crystal Fish a month before Suzuki retired and started helping out his dad at Ichi Riki for about a year before he owned it. When Shizu Lamm, the restaurant’s owner – the only one it ever had – died in 2021, her niece became the owner, but she wasn’t interested in holding onto it. When Kiichi learned that, he jumped at the opportunity to buy it, and nearly a year in, things are going swimmingly.

In four visits over the past few months, the food and service have been excellent every time, and there is value to be found too – the three handroll lunch special with miso soup ($16.50) in particular stands out. Kiichi also takes pride in the special rolls scrawled on a chalkboard behind the sushi bar. “There are certain fish that come certain days,” he says. “We put it on special so we can sell it that day.”

One notable change since he took over, Kiichi says, is the freshness and quality of the ingredients – both the fish and vegetables. He also has plans to get new chairs and tables soon, and to work on other aesthetics – ceiling, exterior and more – of the 60-year-old restaurant. “Little by little, I’m going to be upgrading a few things here and there,” Kiichi says.

When asked if he thinks his dad might keeping working well into his golden years, like Jiro, Kiichi’s not so sure. “He’s talking about retirement soon.”

Either way, there’s been a Yokota slinging sushi at Ichi Riki for nearly 40 years running, and there’s likely to be a Yokota doing the same for many years to come.

ICHI RIKI 1603 Del Monte Blvd., Seaside. Open Mon-Thu 11:30am-2:30pm, 5pm-9pm; Fri-Sun noon-9pm. 394-7733, ichirikiseaside.com.