An all-you-can-eat sushi chain is scooping up old Shari’s across Oregon and Washington.
Across the Pacific Northwest sit smatterings of hexagonal buildings — once home to the reluctantly beloved 24-hour diner chain Shari’s Cafe & Pies. The company closed all its Oregon locations in 2024, leaving those recognizable, nostalgic facades ready for the taking.
Two years later, fewer and fewer former Shari’s remain empty. Now, instead of pie, they serve dumplings, breakfast, burgers and seafood.
At least seven closed cafes in Oregon and Washington have been repurposed as sushi buffets — with several more on the way in Milwaukie, Eugene and Salem.
Sumo Sushi & Grill is a chain of Japanese restaurants dishing up all-you-can-eat sushi, appetizers and dessert, plus ramen and other entrees. It operates eight restaurants in Washington, five of which — in Kent, Burlington, Lynnwood, Kelso and Kirkland — once housed Shari’s cafes.
The chain debuted in Oregon in November, taking over the former Oregon City Shari’s at 19001 S. Beavercreek Road. In June, another opened in an ex-Shari’s in Portland, at 9730 N. Whitaker Road near Delta Park.
And there are more conversions on the way.
At Milwaukie Marketplace, Sumo Sushi & Grill is listed as an incoming tenant for the old cafe at 11030 S.E. Oak St. The plaza will also soon be home to a Habit Burger & Grill and Ross Dress for Less.
Sumo Sushi & Grill is also eyeing openings at former Shari’s cafes in Eugene and Salem, according to respective reports from The Register-Guard and Statesman Journal.
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