Our Story

In 2002 Los Angeles, over a bottle of sake and an omakase dinner at Ginza Sushi-ko, Eden Restaurant Supply was born.

At the heart of a remarkable chapter in American Japanese dining, a new generation of chefs and restaurateurs was bringing increasingly sophisticated traditions, personal visions, and distinctive dining experiences to a growing American audience. Our founder, a pioneer in bringing Asian products and culture to the United States, was approached to help source the specialized tableware, traditional servingware, and equipment that these ambitious concepts required.

Those early years brought ERS into the close-knit world of Los Angeles's Japanese dining community, forging relationships with chefs and restaurateurs at home, and manufacturers and craftspeople in Japan and broader Asia. The work was rooted in the particular needs of individual restaurants, and in the relationships that brought their kitchens and dining rooms to life.

As sushi became an increasingly familiar part of American life, the intimate omakase counters and fine-dining establishments of those early years were joined by neighborhood sushi bars, casual restaurants, and growing multi-location operations. ERS played a pioneering role in the widespread adoption of custom-printed chopstick sleeves and worked directly with overseas manufacturers on the development and supply of sushi takeout containers for the American restaurant market. A restaurant's name printed on a paper sleeve, the familiar shape of a sushi tray—small, everyday details that helped carry its food, its presentation, and its identity well beyond the dining room.

Our founder's Korean roots brought another dimension to the company's work as Los Angeles's Korean dining community flourished. ERS helped equip and support the growing generation of all-you-can-eat Korean BBQ restaurants, working with the specialized grills, ventilation systems, dining tables, and equipment that made these operations possible. Over the years, that experience grew alongside Korean dining itself, from bustling neighborhood barbecue restaurants to the ambitious contemporary concepts and national restaurant groups of today.

The relationships and experience established in those communities gradually extended across Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese, and other Asian cuisines, each bringing its own traditions, equipment, and ways of preparing and presenting food.

As Asian cuisine found its place beyond independent restaurants—in hotel dining rooms, special events, banquets, and recurring culinary programs—ERS's work followed. What began with the tableware for a signature restaurant grew into turnkey foodservice procurement at scale for hotels, resorts, hospitality groups, and institutional kitchens.

Behind much of that history lies the quieter work of restaurant supply: drawings studied, equipment specified, samples examined, and relationships cultivated. Over more than two decades, those experiences have left ERS with a rich understanding of what restaurants choose and why, what endures through years of service, and what operators return to purchase. The data and practical knowledge gathered along the way form the foundation of ERS's original industry research, technical resources, and hands-on equipment testing.

Today, Eden Restaurant Supply serves restaurants, hospitality groups, and foodservice operations throughout the United States, continuing its work with the same meticulous attention to detail and personal care that have defined its relationships since the beginning.