Jeoffrey Curtis, the owner and executive chef of The Twisted Chopstick, is almost done renovating the restaurant’s new home, a 90-year-old former coffee house at 412 South Woodland Blvd. in DeLand.
It is just a few blocks from its old location, a rented space in the DeLand Hotel at 442 East New York Ave., which closed in July. In a Facebook post in early July, he said it was because he lost his liquor license there.
Jeoffrey, who has been cooking for more than 11 years, said he learned the basics of Japanese cooking from his first mentor, his mother, Julita Curtis. She and his father, Roland, are part of The Twisted Chopstick team.
“It all started in a small sushi bar when the idea came to us. With over 15 years of restaurant experience we asked ourselves why not reinvent how people enjoy Sushi? We decided to make a fun To-Go and Delivery service to accommodate your busy lifestyle. Let us bring the Sushi to you,” he writes on his website.
Curtis bought the new property for $460,000 and went to work turning it from a tea room full of antiques to a Japanese sushi restaurant. The building is changing but the menu will stay much the same.
Curtis, who also owns the Downtown DeLand restaurant Buddha Bowls, told the West Volusia Beacon his vision is to transform the old house into an izakaya — the Japanese version of American tapas bars.
To keep a Japanese feel, Curtis plans to put in a koi pond on the back patio, where he hopes to have live music a few times a week.
When done, the new restaurant will seat about 60 with a couple dozen seats on the patio.
Curtis also owns Buddha Bowls, which he calls a “sister restaurant,” at 117 W. Howry Ave., DeLand.
