Longtime local Japanese restaurant closes

In what has go a motion of the times, a venerable Las Vegas edifice has closed, the spot reportedly sold to a dispensary.

Osaka Japanese Cuisine, which had been astatine 7511 W. Lake Mead Blvd., closed Sunday aft much than 2 decades. It had been owned by Joy Nakanishi Faas, whose brother, Gene, operates Osaka Japanese Bistro astatine 4205 W. Sahara Ave. and 10920 S. Eastern Ave. successful Henderson. The businesses operated separately, and the bistros volition stay open.

The siblings’ father, Sam — a autochthonal Las Vegan who contempt his American citizenship was confined to a Japanese internment campy successful California during World War II — opened the archetypal Osaka connected West Sahara Avenue successful 1968. Said to beryllium the city’s archetypal Japanese restaurant, it was named for the hometown of his wife, Aiko. Sam Nakanishi died successful 1998.

Contact Heidi Knapp Rinella astatine Hrinella@reviewjournal.com. Follow @HKRinella connected Twitter.