When former Blue Sky Kitchen owner Barry Blackston decided to sell his popular restaurant to fellow downtown restaurateur Sae Shin, owner of downtown’s 1102 Bar & Grill and Soy Noodle House, he was feeling the effects of owning two successful restaurants at once.
Blackston told the Metro Spirit back in June of 2011, “Anyone who’s ever run a restaurant knows that it’s a nonstop…the issues are nonstop. There’s always a plumbing issue or an employee issue and it multiplies when you own more than one business. Somebody’s gotta cook if someone doesn’t show up. If the manager is sick, somebody’s got to be there, and it’s me.”
Blackston and partner Matt Flynn opened Blue Sky around 2000, bringing an upper scale dining experience to downtown that at the time was fresh and new.