JORDAN RUBIN

This sustainability-minded chef turned a hot dog cart and a passion for bluefin tuna into a joyful sushi bar.

- RAPHAEL BRION,ALEX LAU

JORDAN RUBIN DIDN’T HAVE A PLAN, so he did what any hungry, enterprising teenager might do: He signed up for culinary school. “I thought that I would be eating great … and living like a king,” he says. “But obviously it’s the opposite. You eat over a garbage can at 1 in the morning.” His first job out of school was working the salad station at 10 Prime Steak & Sushi in Providence.

You know how this story goes. One day, the chef’s assistant at the sushi bar didn’t show up for work, and Rubin volunteered. “I was terrible,” he says. But he kept at it, working at sushi restaurants all over New England, and eventually landed in Portland, Maine, where he launched his own sushi business.

MR. TUNA

Portland, Maine

Tuna rolls and crab rolls at Mr. Tuna

Mr. Tuna first opened in a refurbished hot dog cart that Rubin had purchased off Craigslist. The opening menu was three hand rolls (spicy tuna, spicy salmon, and spicy scallop and crab) and three sushi burritos. It was an immediate hit. Eventually he upgraded to a trailer, and in May 2024, he opened a bright and cheerful permanent location with an expanded menu.