Marco Levy Bibas Of Yūbi Box Sushi (“Yūbi”): 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Became a Restaurateur
An Interview With Martita Mestey
Enjoy every step of the way, don’t be afraid to make mistakes, and most importantly, love what you do. When I was 15, my mentor, Harry Sasson — who is also a chef — told me ‘If you do what you love, you will never work a day in your life,’ and I truly believe that.
As a part of our series about “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Became a Restaurateur”, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Marco Levy Bibas.
Chef Marco Levy’s culinary journey began at the age of eight when he began cooking for his family, and his love for food was ignited. With over 15 years of experience working with esteemed chefs like Harry Sasson and premier hospitality firms like Hillstone and Innovative Dining Group, Marco made the decision to venture on his own and open his premier sushi concept, Yūbi Box Sushi, which was inspired by his deep passion for sushi, cultivated during his time in New York City. In the bustling metropolis, he developed a taste for high-quality sushi that offered a unique experiential touch — something that the South Florida market lacked — and he was driven to bring the same joy and culinary excellence he had experienced in NYC to his hometown, culminating in the birth of Yūbi Box Sushi.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to ‘get to know’ you a bit. Can you share with our readers a story about what inspired you to become a restaurateur?
I was inspired to go into the restaurant industry at the young age of eight when I fell in love with the culinary world — both with food and the art of cooking. I also fell in love with the “Food Network” channel and that sparked my desire to work in the food industry. After many afternoons of watching Rachel Ray and Ina Garten, I decided to cook dinner for my family — and yes, I was still eight years old — and the rest is history. After discovering my passion, I took it upon myself to learn every aspect of the industry in preparation for when I was to open my first restaurant. It was extremely important to know every single aspect of the restaurant — from front of house, to back of house, marketing, planning and construction, finance and business, online presence and reputation, etc. I worked at some of the most respected brands and restaurants like Hillstone, Innovative Dining Group, Eataly, Isaac Perlman Catering, and that’s just to name a few.
However, the true inspiration for becoming a restaurateur was for the sole satisfaction I get from seeing others enjoy the food and experience I created. There is no greater feeling in life than seeing your creation — whether it’s food, environment, experience or all of the above — making a positive impact on someone’s life. Additionally, I decided to open a sushi concept in Miami, because at the time, there weren’t really other sushi offerings in the area and it was a great time to take advantage of that.
Do you have a specific type of food that you focus on? What was it that first drew you to cooking that type of food? Can you share a story about that with us?
Currently, I focus on sushi and Japanese food, having recently launched Yūbi Box Sushi, a delivery-only innovative sushi concept in Miami. My passion for Japanese cuisine and culture runs deep. I’ve long admired the meticulous attention to detail in Japanese craftsmanship, the purity of their flavors, and the practical elegance of their designs. These qualities sparked my curiosity about their culture and inspired me to integrate their traditions and techniques into my restaurant concept, albeit with a distinct Miami flair.
Can you share the funniest or most interesting story that happened to you since you became a restaurateur? What was the lesson or take away you took out of that story?
The journey to naming our restaurant proved to be quite the adventure, culminating in what is now known as ‘Yūbi Box.’ Initially, we were drawn to the name ‘Umi Box,’ with ‘Umi’ meaning ‘sea’ or ‘ocean’ in Japanese, perfectly reflecting our seafood-centric menu. Confident in its uniqueness, I checked the USPTO database and found no other establishments with the same name. However, just two weeks before our planned opening, I discovered that ‘Umi’ was already trademarked, therefore making our chosen name unfortunately unusable. Despite the setback, we persevered, exploring various alternatives until we settled on ‘Yūbi Box,’ meaning ‘elegance box’ or ‘beauty box.’ This experience taught me the importance of addressing obstacles head-on and adapting swiftly to challenges. It’s a reminder that in the restaurant industry, as in life, flexibility and resilience are key to success.
Can you tell us a story about the hard times that you faced when you first started your journey? How did you overcome this obstacle?
In my experience, the hardest part of opening a restaurant was the recipe testing and development, and ironically, that was the part that I expected to be the easiest. Throughout my life, cooking has come naturally to me — I have never taken any formal cooking classes or courses, and for the most part, I would say I have a pretty good sense of flavors. However, I never would have thought it would be so difficult to make a spicy tuna recipe that would be amazing. Of course, I know how to make spicy tuna, but the same spicy tuna I would make for my friends and family was not good enough for the restaurant. And you may be asking why, and that’s because I needed to create a spicy tuna that was cost effective, would hold for at least a day, maintained its color, and still tasted fresh after two hours in a box. Since our restaurant is not a typical brick and mortar, we tested all our recipes after two hours in a box to account for the worst possible delivery scenario due to third party delivery services.
After making 30+ spicy tuna recipes, we finally arrived at our current spicy tuna recipe. Another recipe that was extremely difficult was our rice and our rice vinegar. I am a big believer that what differentiates our sushi from the rest of the restaurants is our rice. Anyone can get really tasty fish, but not everyone has really good rice. For our rice, we took a very scientific approach — first we played around with different varieties of rice, then we tested how long we washed and soaked it, and lastly, how long we cooked and steamed the rice. Once we established the rice, we did the same with the vinegars. The question was would we use Akazu, which is aged red vinegar, or regular rice vinegar. Then it was a matter of what type of sugar would we use — white, brown, dark brown, turbinado, cane sugar, coconut sugar, honey, or other sweeteners? Then, what type of salt — ionized, kosher, sea salt, etc.? Finally, what ratio would the sugar vinegar and salt be mixed? At the end of our recipe development, I think we made over 50 vinegar and rice variations until we arrived at our current recipe.
In your experience, what is the key to creating a dish that customers are crazy about?
The first key to creating a dish that customers are crazy about is simple: the food needs to be amazing. At first bite, the customer should have that “Wow” moment. The question that follows is well, how do you make amazing food? I like to approach all my recipes with a little bit of science or theory, and it goes as follows: I have identified five major taste profiles (sweet, salty, spicy, sour, bitter) and for a dish to be great it needs to have all five profiles and be in balance. It’s like adding salt to your chocolate chip cookie dough recipe — it’s not salty but it enhances all the flavors. My next step is don’t get too crazy (which I struggle to do) but keep things simple and allow those flavors to truly shine. Finally, start with something familiar and put your own twist on it — like our Spicy Hamachi Roll — it’s the perfect marriage between the Negihama Roll (scallion and Hamachi) coupled with an Aji Amarillo Tiradito.
Personally, what is the ‘perfect meal for you’?
The perfect meal for me is eating three single cheeseburgers from 7th St Burger in New York City.
Where does your inspiration for creating come from? Is there something that you turn to for a daily creativity boost?
My inspiration comes from my desire to experiment with food and create new dishes. When I need creativity, I usually will find inspiration while scrolling on Instagram and seeing what other people and chefs are doing, which then leads me to new ideas and techniques or experiment with combinations I never expected to.
Are you working on any new or exciting projects now? What impact do you think this will have?
Yes! I’m always working on something new — whether it be a recipe or creation for Yūbi Box Sushi. Currently, I am working on the next iteration of Yūbi Box, and seeing how far we can build this brand. As many of my friends and family already know, I built Yūbi Box with a goal of having 100 locations. I want to provide customers with our amazing and unique experience, as well as delicious and affordable sushi, while they relax in the comfort of their own homes.
What advice would you give to other restaurateurs to thrive and avoid burnout?
Rome wasn’t built in a day — so when times are tough (and they will be!), take it one step and one day at a time. Also, a piece of advice for my fellow restaurateurs is that you need to build your business model to give yourself time off and not be in the restaurant 24/7. While it’s certainly a passion of mine to be in the restaurant and creating the best recipes and sushi boxes, I recognize that spending all day doing the same thing, can eventually lead to feeling burnt out. While building your business model, take into consideration that you can’t expand if you are the only one doing the operations. Lastly, there’s a saying, “Scared money doesn’t make money,” so believe in your concept and invest into it.
Thank you for all that. Now we are ready for the main question of the interview. What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Started as a Restaurateur” and why?
- You’re never going to be ready to start your own business until you do it, so shoot for the stars and settle for the clouds. I always thought that I would be ready, and it wasn’t until my hand was forced between jobs and I had nothing to do that I realized I was never going to be ready. Therefore, there was no point in waiting any longer. I don’t regret anything I have done and truly am blessed to love what I do even after 70 straight days of 16-hour shifts.
- Good food or good design is not enough to sell.
- You’re only as good as your team — I know everyone says the client always comes first, but that is a lie. Your team comes first, then the client. If your team is happy and excited about coming to work — it will show in their performance.
- Patience — chances are your restaurant is not going to explode on day one or even day 200. Build enough cash flow for at least a year into your projections, including a form of payment for yourself to be able to live. And enjoy the ride — marketing initiatives take around three to five months to see real impact, let alone public relations and design.
- Enjoy every step of the way, don’t be afraid to make mistakes, and most importantly, love what you do. When I was 15, my mentor, Harry Sasson — who is also a chef — told me ‘If you do what you love, you will never work a day in your life,’ and I truly believe that.
What’s the one dish people have to try if they visit your establishment?
The Yūbi Delight! It comes with eight Nigiri (Toro, Bigeye Tuna, Seared Albacore Tuna, Salmon, Torched Salmon Belly, Hamachi, Torched Hamachi Belly, Miso Eggplant), Edamame, Chef’s Crudo, and your choice of Roll. This gives you a little bit of everything and truly lets you experience what Yūbi is about. As far as choosing the best roll, my favorite is the “Miami Spice” — which is one of our vegetarian rolls and consists of heart of palm mixed with spicy mayo, cucumber, chives, and topped with miso eggplant. I’m not a vegetarian, but that roll is delicious!
You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
I would invest in our youth and more specifically, investing in youth hunger programs. Food is such an important part of my life, and thankfully, I never worried about when my next meal would be. However, that is not the reality for a lot of people. I would love to make a big impact in having no child be hungry. Within the restaurant industry, there is a lot of waste that could go to feeding these kids. Thankfully at Yūbi Box, we run with almost zero waste but if there was a way to connect these businesses with organizations to provide food for low income children, would be my goal.
Thank you so much for these insights. This was very inspirational!
Marco Levy Bibas Of Yūbi Box Sushi (“Yūbi”): 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Became a… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.