Welcome to our series, #WHYoming, brought to you in partnership with Commerce Bank of Wyoming.
We are highlighting people throughout our communities and asking them a few questions. We want to learn a little about them and see why they chose this great state to raise their families, start their businesses, or simply to ask — Why Wyoming?
For this month’s #WHYoming, I had a chance to talk with Jerry Zhang, owner and operator of Sapporo Japanese Steakhouse and Wild Mustang Restaurant. Jerry is very involved in the Rock Springs and Sweetwater County community, using his businesses to give back to the community as much as he can. This year, like for the past six years, he is giving out 30 free Thanksgiving meals at Sapporo. With those meals already accounted for by community members, he is also giving out $1,000 worth of Sapporo gift cards, and $1,000 worth of Wild Mustang gift cards, so the community can enjoy a meal on him.
Jerry finds it extremely important to give back to the community, because they support him so much through his businesses. He grew up in Fuzhou, which is close to Hong Kong, and he became an American citizen just last year. He loves the home he has made here in Wyoming, even saying in a past life he was possibly a Wyoming Indian. With his wife, they are raising their three children here, and Jerry believes Wyoming and Rock Springs are amazing places to instill good values into the character of his kids. Rock Springs is beyond lucky to have Jerry as a member of our community, and I really enjoyed getting to know him a little better through this article.
Jerry, how did you get into the restaurant business?
My major is in biology and engineering, and I was supposed to go to study in Australia. But then, because I have family in the United States, that’s why I came to see my uncle in 2008. My uncle owned a couple restaurants in Pennsylvania, and they were too busy, so he had me to help him manage them. I also cooked Hibachi at that time too.Â
With Sapporo being your first restaurant in Rock Springs, why did you decide to open Wild Mustang?
I’ve lived in Wyoming, here in Rock Springs, since the end of 2015, so almost nine years, I think. And I saw [Village Inn] close, and I heard a lot of the people in town say there’s no good places for breakfast, and the steak houses’ meals are too expensive. So I started thinking and I talked to my team. I just became an American citizen last year, and so I said, ‘hey, it’s a shame that I’m American, but I don’t know how to cook American food.’ So I wanted to create an American restaurant here.
And then, since I had this idea, I reached out to many people locally, and it’s amazing that so many people came to help me, to support me.
But one weird thing was in 2018, I went to see a fortune teller in Taiwan and he told me, ‘in six years, you will do something you’ve never done before,’ and now it’s six years later, 2024, and I’ve never cooked American food before and now I have the Wild Mustang. But there’s so many people who came and supported me to make this happen.
You’ve given out free Thanksgiving meals for several years now, are you doing that again this year?
Yes! I just made the posts on our Facebook pages.
I feel, this year the economy is going down everywhere in the United States. I have many friends in the restaurant business around the United States, like in Texas, New York, and New Jersey, and I hear from them that they’re experiencing the same. So this year along with meals at Sapporo, I’m doing $1000 worth of gift cards [$20 per person] to give away for those people who don’t get a chance to stop in here to get a meal, then they can still come here to ask for a gift card. I can treat them with a gift card that they can spend here.
And this is another reason why I wanted to have another restaurant because with two restaurants here, if that restaurant is successful too, I can do more good things for our community. Wild Mustang, we’ve barely been open for a month now, but I contacted the soup kitchen at the church already, and I will offer 100 meals of turkey breast dinner or prime rib, and then the soup kitchen told me they may have mashed potatoes and vegetables so it’s perfect, we will work together. And then I have $1,000 worth of gift cards available at Wild Mustang too.
Why is it so important to you to give to the community like this for Thanksgiving?
Thanksgiving is very important, you know, you have family together. Especially as a business owner, I get so much support and love from our community, and this day is a good time for me to give back and to show my appreciation, too.
And also, I believe in karma. You should always do something nice, because as a business owner, you cannot be selfish. To be greedy is no good.
What do you like most about your job?
I learn a lot of things, and English too, from my coworkers. At Wild Mustang I joke with them sometimes, you know they’ll say, ‘oh Jerry it’s payday,’ and I’ll say, ‘Oh sorry, no English.’ We joke around. The people are nice here.
I used to live in big cities like New York and Boston for seven years before I moved to Wyoming, and I still visit almost every year because I have family and friends there, but I like small towns. When I go shopping here, I see so many friendly faces, I’m greeting people all the time.
How long have you been in Rock Springs and how did you end up here?
I first came to the United States in 2008. I always remember that because the Chinese government was hosting the Beijing Olympic Games.
I opened the first Sapporo in Gillette in 2015, and after that we opened one in Douglas. And then the third one we opened in Wyoming was in Rock Springs. I still remember in 2015 I drove by here and saw this building and I prayed to God and I talked to this building. I said, ‘hey, in the future I will work with you. I will take care of you, please take care of me.’
I can say it is destiny. I remember when I decided to move to Rock Springs, so many of my friends in Gillette said, ‘Jerry, don’t leave us, we like you here.’ But I believe in karma, and I feel like maybe in my previous life, I was a Wyoming Indian. Maybe I was born here.
I have a restaurant and also a house in Colorado too, but that for me is just an investment. Every time I go somewhere, like when I meet my family, and then I drive back to Rock Springs and I’m getting closer, I feel like, oh, this is my home now. I feel comfortable here.
What is something unique about you?
I like cooking. Most of people know I cook. I also love to help people, I like to see people happy. In my religion, because I was born and raised in a Buddhist family and we believe in reincarnation, I feel like we are the same people. That’s why if I accidentally hurt someone, I blame myself. It’s no good because as people we feel the same love, we feel the same hurt. So I’m always compassionate and love people.
What are some of your other hobbies?
I like collecting antiques, I like reading. I was supposed to be a teacher for biology and engineering. Many of my classmates have become teachers now. My father used to study very well in school, and he wanted to be a teacher. When I followed him when I was child, I learned from him. He had a bookshelf in his room and I always read the books in his room.
What do you appreciate most about our community?
The people here are very nice. Of course there’s always some people who are good and some people who aren’t, but the people here are so friendly. Â
If you could give one brief piece of advice, what would it be?
If you hold a grudge or hate people or always think something or someone is no good, everybody you see will be evil in your eyes. And that’s not right. You should always put yourself in heaven to see people, and you’ll see the best in them. It’s only angels you’ll see. You have to remember that nobody is perfect.
Like, Jack Ma is the Alibaba owner in China, and my son asked me, “hey father, is Jack Ma smart? He has a lot of money.’ And I told him that you cannot judge only one side of a person. You cannot judge him only on his money. Put it like this, if a guy gets an A in science but he gets a D in math, do you think he’s smart or that he’s not smart? It’s hard to say, because you can’t judge people by only one side, or one thing.
Where is your favorite place to hang out in Sweetwater County?
Oh, I got to the shopping mall here a lot. I also go to the recreation center a lot, and I visit the museum here and in Green River. Honestly, most of the time I spent working before but now I have a lot of people to help me out so I started to hang out with more and more friends. I bought a side-by-side last summer and I finally drove up to White Mountain. It was my first time. It was fun—but windy!
If you had all the time and resources necessary, what’s a skill you would want to learn?
Honestly, I would say English. Because English is very important for me, especially me as a first generation immigrant in the United States. During the last 15-16 years in the United States, my English has improved a lot already compared to people.I always say I speak Chinglish.
I see so many of my friends who live in the United States but they don’t really speak English, and I feel bad because I always say, ‘you guys don’t live in the United States actually, you still live in the border because you don’t speak English.’ because kind of like you from this country you live in the. If you speak English, you have more opportunities too. That’s why I wish I can be better and better at English.Â
What is one, or a few, of your proudest accomplishments?
Ever since I was a kid I always wanted to be the pride of my parents.
I said the same when I got the Rock Star Award in the last couple of weeks, because when I was kid, my parents always taught me to be strong and to be a stand up man. That’s why I always did my best when I was in school, I studied very hard and I was a good student. Every time there was a parent-teacher conference, when my teacher talked to my mom, I felt proud for making my mom happy because I’m a good student.Â
When I got married and I started raising my kids, I wanted to teach them to be good. With my businesses, I always try to do my best because I want my parents to feel proud of me.
Now every month I give money to my father and my mother because they want to retire, and this is my culture. They raised me and now they’re getting old, it’s my time to give back to them.
What would you sing at karaoke night?
Oh, I do karaoke! I like country country music because I was born and raised in a small village, so I like old school music. Many of my friends, they always say, ‘Jerry, why do you always listen to the music from your grandpa and father’s age?’
How would your family and friends describe you?
Most of them would say, first, I talk a lot. Second, that I’m too nice. Many of my friends tell me I cannot be like this because so many people will take advantage of me. Because I help my friends a lot. And I don’t know why but I always feel guilty or shameful to reject people.
Who would you want to play you in a movie about your life?
I like Jackie Chan!
Why do you choose to live in Wyoming?
I still say that it’s destiny. Of course the business is good, I appreciate how our community supports me. But I like the small town, honestly. I don’t like big cities. My hometown is a big city, and now I like to vacation in big cities, but for living I like living in small towns. They make me feel peaceful.
When getting my citizenship, it took a long time because I got the student visa in 2008, then I got the green card in 2015. I feel it’s an honor to be an American citizen. I remember before when I traveled, when at the airport I admired Americans. I would see American people with the blue colored passport, and everything was very convenient for them. And I thought, ‘I wish one day I can get an American passport, I want to be an American.’
My uncle is an American citizen for maybe 40 years already. Then every year he would come back to my hometown to celebrate the Chinese New Year, and he would always say how great the US is. This is kind of like a seed that was planted in my mind, I wanted to be an American citizen.
The US is a free country. A lot of younger generations don’t know how much freedom they have until they travel to other countries. I like our freedom.
This community series is brought to you by our great sponsors at Commerce Bank of Wyoming.
