New sushi restaurant opens at the Victorian Paragon Arcade in Hull

Oishii Ne, an Asian street food restaurant and take-away inspired by the Japanese phrase for “it’s delicious", is the latest addition to the businesses at Paragon Arcade in Hull.

Meanwhile Out of the Attic, a record shop which opened in the arcade in June 2020 and is run by two old school friends, has expanded into a double unit with space to display more records, CDs, DVDs and t-shirts.

Allenby Commercial, which transformed all the units and attracted an array of niche businesses after buying Paragon Arcade in 2017, will soon announce new tenants for the remaining space.

Georgia Allenby, Design and Marketing Manager at Allenby Commercial, said: “Paragon Arcade is all about providing a launchpad for independent local businesses which bring great ideas and fit into the community spirit we have nurtured here.

“We have had some fantastic tenants. Some find their feet and move to bigger premises elsewhere, others expand to larger units here and we have a waiting list of people who want to move in when vacancies arise.”

Tom Would said he fell in love with Asian food during several trips to Japan and France, where he sharpened his skills with the help of a Japanese sushi master who was introduced to him by a friend.

He launched Oishii Ne as a pop-up in December 2020. His venues included Paragon Arcade and he jumped at the chance of opening his own place with a ground floor counter service and seating upstairs for 22 people.

He said: “We opened in July and it’s been manic. We had a following anyway from our pop-ups and it’s gone up three-fold or more. A lot of people are still finding out about us – people who aren’t on social media and have discovered us in other ways, including by walking through the arcade.

“We’ve developed the menu as we’ve found out more about what our customers want and the chefs are coming up with a special every Thursday, such as furikake potatoes and some tempura dishes. There are three of us now plus two who help out part-time."

Gary Matfin and Andy Sparrow used to save their school dinner money to spend in Hull city centre at the Sydney Scarborough record shop as well as in HMV, Our Price, Boots and Woolworths.

Mr Matfin said: “HMV is still around but Boots doesn’t sell records any more and the others are long gone. We always said we wanted to open our own record shop and 40 years later we did it.

“Initially we had no idea whether there would be any interest in the business but it has just grown and we have been blown over by the support we have had. People seem to like what we do and where we are. It’s the kind of shop you would expect to find in an arcade.

“It’s a community down here. Each shop is different and has something unique to offer and often we work together. When Record Store Day comes round we let the other businesses know and our neighbours Milchig sell coffee and cookies to the people in our queue."