San Antonio’s Godai Sushi files for bankruptcy liquidation

San Antonio’s Godai Sushi Bar & Restaurant filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation last week due to debt owed to the Internal Revenue Service and other creditors, according to court filings obtained by the Current.

Even so, the North Side sushi mainstay plans to remain in operation for the foreseeable future, its attorney told one local media outlet.

Corporate entity Godai Sushi Inc. listed debts of nearly $346,000 in its filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Texas. Of that total, the business, led by chef William “Goro” Pitchford Jr., owes $93,000 to the IRS.

Pitchford’s bankruptcy attorney, Martin Seidler, to talk to the Current about the filing. However, he  told the Express-News that even though Godai Sushi Inc. is liquidating, the restaurant itself was reincorporated under Gosushi LLC in May.

“The IRS gave him an ultimatum,” Seidler told the daily. “They claimed they were going to shut him down. So we figured if they’re going to shut him down, [he] might as well as close down the old [company] and then set up a new company that doesn’t have any debts so he can start paying them back individually.”

Godai Sushi is the second local sushi restaurant to make a bankruptcy filing in recent weeks. Sushi Zushi filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on June 21. That filing was the result of an ongoing feud among the chain’s owners, according to a separate Express-News report.

Pitchford’s been operating sushi restaurants in the San Antonio area since 1998, when he opened Teriyaki & More. Godai Sushi, which Pitchford launched in 2005, was voted the second-best sushi restaurant in the Current‘s 2022 Best of San Antonio issue.

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This article appears in Jun 26 – Jul 2, 2024.