By Shanice Hernandez
Photography by Shanice Hernandez

Guillermo “Willy” De Santiago learned to cook out of necessity. At 10 years old, standing over an electric stove, he made his first ramen noodles after his older sister showed him the basics — mostly so she wouldn’t have to do it anymore. What stuck wasn’t the recipe; it was the feeling: the quiet satisfaction of making something with his own hands and the revelation that food simply tastes better when you make it yourself.

Years later, sushi entered his life not just as a craft but as a lifeline.

“I really dove into my work and my craft,” De Santiago says of the period following a difficult divorce. “I was losing a piece of myself, and sushi filled that void.” What began as a distraction became an obsession, then a purpose. “It ended up paying off, so it’s beautiful,” he says. “I owe everything to sushi right now.”

De Santiago speaks about sushi with respect and curiosity, drawn to its endless possibilities. “It’s so diverse,” he explains. “I’ll never be done learning, and I think that’s beautiful.” When it came time to open his own restaurant, the decision to focus on sushi was inevitable. The theme, however, came from a much more personal place.

During another devastating chapter in his life — the loss of his closest skateboarding friend, Chase — De Santiago returned to skating, the one constant that had always grounded him. “I was mourning my skate brother,” he says. “I kept thinking about all our sessions, all the memories, all the good times. I couldn’t think of anything more fulfilling than choosing skateboarding as the theme.”

That vision became The Sushi Plugg, now believed to be the only skateboard-themed sushi restaurant in the world. For De Santiago, the aesthetic is only part of the story. What matters more is that skaters understand the deeper connection. “Everything I did in my jobs after skating, I approached with a skate-or-die mentality,” he says. “In skate culture, there’s no coach. You watch, you try, you fail, you repeat. I learned a kickflip by watching somebody else do it. I learned to roll sushi the same way.”

In just two-and-a-half years, The Sushi Plugg has become a pilgrimage site of sorts for skaters, from local kids to Hall of Fame skateboarder Jamie Thomas and his legendary Zero skate team.

Beyond the kitchen, De Santiago is a central figure in El Paso’s skateboarding ecosystem. He runs the Sushi Plugg skate team, feeds his skaters for free, designs their logos and gives them full control over how they brand themselves. “That’s kind of a dream sponsor for some people,” he laughs. He also hires skaters in the restaurant whenever possible. “They’re tough. They’re resilient. They learn fast.” If you can skate, you can fall down a thousand times and still get back up, and that translates to work.

His commitment extends into the nonprofit world as well. De Santiago is a coach with Sk8 4 Kids, a local nonprofit introducing youth to skateboarding as a positive outlet. Its founders, Dino and Mrs. K, were among his first customers. Long before the nonprofit existed, they were already paying for kids’ gear out of their own pockets. “That spoke to me immediately,” De Santiago says. “Anyone giving their free time to help kids in a positive way, that felt like a calling from God.”

Supporting Sk8 4 Kids became another way for De Santiago to honor the community and the friend he lost. Today the organization has doubled, possibly tripled, in size. “We have so many kids we don’t even have enough coaches,” he says. Every coach volunteers. “They do it because they love skateboarding. That speaks volumes about the culture.”

De Santiago is quick to remind outsiders that skateboarding, despite its countercultural roots, is not separate from culture; it is culture. “We care just as much as football, basketball or baseball players,” he says. “It’s just a different genre of music.”

That understanding has come full circle in his own family. When De Santiago first started skating as a freshman in high school, his father dismissed it as a phase. Today his father is also his business partner and one of the restaurant’s biggest supporters. “My dad now understands that skateboarding is deeper than what it looks like on the surface,” De Santiago says.

At The Sushi Plugg, skate clips play on the walls. Rolls are plated with precision. Behind every bite is a story of grief, survival and discipline — of learning by watching, falling by trying and standing back up. Sushi and skateboarding are no longer separate worlds. They are built on the same discipline, the same patience and the same devotion to craft.