Restaurateur has opened 8 eateries, all in southwest Las Vegas

David Sim doesn’t have a culinary background, but that hasn’t stopped him from establishing an extensive portfolio of Asian restaurants in the southwest valley.

Walk through the Rainbow Robindale Plaza on South Rainbow Boulevard, and a number of eateries stick out from the neighboring spas and fast-food chains. Omoide Noodles & Bowls. Goong Korean BBQ. YuXiang Korean Chinese Cuisine. Oyshi Sushi. Sim owns all of them, plus a few more.

Originally from Incheon, South Korea, Sim came to the U.S. in 1994 and graduated from UNLV in 2002 with a degree in hospitality management. After college, he dealt blackjack at Bellagio and later moved to Guam, where he took a hospitality internship at the Pacific Islands Club.

After about a year he was back in the States, this time in Temecula, California, where his brother’s friend was opening a Japanese restaurant. That’s when Sim started thinking about opening his own.

After a year in California, Sim was back in Las Vegas at the now-closed Sushi Factory. Sim started looking for the ideal location for his business. At the time, he was living in the Mountain’s Edge neighborhood, so he settled on the Rainbow Robindale Plaza south of the 215 Beltway.

“There were not many homes. It was not a major street out here,” Sim said. “A lot of people were worried about it.

“I figured we’ll wait. As long as we hang tight, it should be OK.” Oyshi Sushi opened in 2007.

Business was “really tough” for the first two years, Sim said. It wasn’t until around 2009 that he felt like he had made it. By then he had established enough of a customer base to continue growing. He opened Soyo Korean Barstaurant, two units down in the same building in March 2010.

Then came The Sparklings in October 2013 (less than a mile south of Oyshi on Rainbow), where Sims experimented outside of Asian cuisine. He dubs it an “American-Italian bar lounge,” where Cajun jambalaya is found on the same menu as Philadelphia cheesesteak, filet mignon and quesadillas.

Sim has strayed from the far southwest valley only once, when he opened the second Oyshi location on the corner of West Sahara Avenue and South Tenaya Way. His most recent four restaurants have opened since 2014, and Sim has gone back to his beginnings at the Rainbow Robindale Plaza.

Though he likes the location, it is the convenience of having his businesses in the same spot that keeps him coming back.

“It’s very convenient to go in and check on them,” Sim said. “When somebody calls in sick, I can jump in right away.”

The latest of Sim’s restaurants is YuXiang Korean Chinese Cuisine, which opened in March. Sim tapped longtime employee and friend Steven Lim to co-own and operate the restaurant.

Lim was one of the first servers hired at Sim’s Oyshi location in 2007. The two had met at Sushi Factory, where Lim was a regular customer, and they found out they had more in common than their Korean heritage.

They both are from Incheon, west of Seoul. They are from the same neighborhood, even, and had attended the same preschool several years apart. Both also graduated from UNLV (Lim received his degree in hospitality in 2006).

Lim, who spent much of his childhood in New York City, said that it’s always been his dream to open a Korean restaurant. In 2010, Sim had him help open Soyo as an assistant manager. Now, in addition to owning YuXiang, Lim oversees the daily culinary operations.

“We want to get the Vegas locals to taste more Korean food,” Lim said. “A lot of them are Korean barbecue. There’s more to it than that.”

Sim said that just because food is traditional, that doesn’t mean it will be popular.

“The generation has been changed, (and) restaurant culture has been changing, too,” Sim said. “In California, Chicago, New York City, they have little trendy foods that are getting popular (among) the younger generation. That’s what I want to do these days.”

Even though he’s opened eight restaurants in the past 10 years, he doesn’t have anything else in the works.

“I never plan it,” Sim said. “Something always comes comes up. I don’t want to lose an opportunity, but I’m not chasing money.”

He said he enjoys the challenge of opening a new business and working in an industry in which the majority of new businesses fail within five years.

“It takes time and years and years to build up regular customers,” Sim said. “That’s really exciting. I love doing what I’m doing.”

Contact Madelyn Reese at mreese@viewnews.com or 702-383-0497. Follow @MadelynGReese on Twitter.