Carol Song
Carol Song is owner of The Seafood King, which opened in Homewood five years ago, and is a co-owner and manager at Sakana Sushi Bar & Grill, which opened in Hoover in February.
Q: How do you manage two different restaurants?
A: I find really good employees here. We’re like friends and family. They help me a lot.
Q: What made you decide you wanted to go into the restaurant business?
A: My family. I used to live in Houston. All my friends and family — they had restaurants, and I decided to do my own business.
Q: When did you move from Houston to the Birmingham area?
A: Five years ago.
Q: What do you think of the Birmingham area?
A: I really love it here because all the people here — it’s very friendly. We help each other. I really find a lot of friends here. We’re like family.
Q: You didn’t have to go into the family business. Why did you decide to stick with restaurants?
A: They have a lot of experience, so I can learn from them. Also, I wanted to do my own business. I feel like I do a lot of challenges if I do the restaurant. I like to give a lot of challenges to myself because I feel like they can help me grow up and learn a lot of things.
Q: How old are you?
A: 30 years old.
Q: Of everything y’all sell here, what’s your favorite dish?
A: My favorite is the Hoover roll and Homewood roll. They have crab meat. They have tuna and a kind of spicy sauce inside. That’s really popular.
Q: Y’all just made up the names?
A: Yeah.
Q: What do you like to do outside of work?
A: I love to play tennis and go to the gym sometimes. Sometimes, I love to go on a trip because I want to go to different countries and cities to bring the new styles to Birmingham. In Houston, I found a lot of sushi restaurants there that do the all-you-can-eat sushi there. That’s why I decided to bring this style to Birmingham. We’re the first sushi all-you-can-eat in Birmingham.
