Nigel Pais and Kenny Truong worked together at Pythian Market, where Truong had opened his poke and sushi stand Kais, and Pais was the culinary director. Pais grew up in India and after finishing culinary school, he moved to New Orleans. Truong learned about the restaurant business and how to make sushi in Sarasota-Bradenton, Florida. Together, they launched The Nori Guys, a pop-up that serves “sushi tacos.” They fry seaweed sheets to use as shells to hold various seafood items, most of them cooked instead of raw. Upcoming Nori Guys popups are at Secondline Brewing on Sunday, Oak Street Brewery and Skeeta Hawk Brewing on Wednesday and Pal’s Lounge on Friday. For a schedule and more information, see @nori_guys on Instagram.
Gambit: How did you get into the restaurant business?
Nigel Pais: I was born and raised in India. I am from (the state of) Karnataka. Mangalore is the city. I went to culinary school, and I moved over here in 2018. I was selected to do an internship at the Hyatt Regency. It was in bread production, so I was making breads and all kinds of pastries for banquets. We had the toughest shift. We worked 2 a.m. to 11 a.m. It was like boot camp. I was there for a year.
I went back to school and got a masters in hospitality and tourism at UNO in 2021. That was more the marketing and the business aspect of it. I worked at a bunch of restaurants. I always was working two jobs. I worked at Saffron NOLA. I worked at Trenasse on St. Charles. I managed the pizza place Meribo on the Northshore for a year. I was the culinary director at the Pythian Market before they shut down.
Kenny Truong: I picked up the sushi game back when I was 19. I was working in a location called Kona Grill in Sarasota, Florida.
I started off waiting tables in high school as a part-time job. A few years in, I wanted to learn about the whole operation of a restaurant, so I got into the back of the house. I thought about giving sushi a shot. I started out washing rice for about two months. Then you learn how to mat rice onto nori sheets to roll sushi. Learning to cut fish takes a while because you have to know how to cut against the grain and cut the fish perfectly. I worked on improving my knife skills. I learned the traditional sushi, and then I wanted to start thinking outside the box. I started getting creative really quickly.
I moved to New Orleans in 2015. I was turning 21, and what better city to turn 21? I was working at sushi restaurants around here and learning. I was part of the opening crew at Rock-n-Sake in Metairie. I worked at Origami and all around. I got the opportunity to open Kais at Pythian Market.
Pais: While I was working at the Hyatt, I helped Kenny out with sushi. I had a little experience at the Hyatt. Sometimes I’d pick up a shift at the sushi bar. I did classic rolls like California rolls, spicy tuna rolls, Philadelphia rolls, tiger rolls. Kenny taught me a few tricks. He taught me some special rolls and about omakase. We would book small parties for that.
Gambit: How did you form Nori Guys?
Pais: We were trying to do something new. At Kais, we noticed that a lot of people were hesitant to eat raw fish. So we were like, what if you were eating a taco and it tastes like a sushi roll? We fried nori (seaweed) sheets with a batter we made. It was nice and crispy, like a really crunchy seaweed chip. We’d top it with sushi rice and any choice of protein the customer wants. We have soft-shell crabs. We have bang bang shrimp, like the fried shrimp appetizer. We have spicy tuna tacos.
We also did Essence Festival, where we had a baked salmon option that did really well. We would bake salmon with lemon pepper seasoning. We’d serve it in the fried nori sheet with sushi rice and Sriracha mayo and sweet soy sauce.
We have a vegan option. It’s tofu with a kimchi vinaigrette. If people are allergic to gluten, we can put it in a regular nori sheet.
At pop-ups, we usually have five items on the menu. There’s the California sushi taco, which is like a California roll with sushi rice, avocado, crab salad, spicy mayo and sweet soy. We also have soft-shell crabs from Grand Bayou. We have the bang bang shrimp tacos. We use big Louisiana shrimp.
Our first event was at NOLA Nite Market in February.
Nautical themed restaurants usually come in one flavor: extra cheese.
Gambit: What’s next for Nori Guys?
Truong: We’re hitting the streets hard. We’ve been doing a lot of festivals and events. People have been booking us.
Pais: We change the menu based on the event. At the NOLA Nite Market this year, we’re going to have yellowtail. We are going to start trying out lobster soon.
Truong: We’re going to try to add new shells with different kinds of batter. You’ll be able to get a spicy taco shell, with crunched up chips and stuff like that. Right now, we’re just trying to get our name out there and elevate our proteins. We’ll have tempura lobster and hamachi. We may add thinly sliced octopus.
Pais: Nori Guys is a brand that could be a chain, and we’d serve bubble tea too. It’s refreshing and delicious and not bad for your health.
Vishal Kotagiri told Gambit about learning to cook, working in New Orleans restaurants and what’s on the Everything Spice menu.
