Noodles are one in all Edwin Zoe’s nice passions in life. “Ever since I used to be a baby, it was actually at all times a favourite factor of mine, and it looks like I by no means grew out of it.”
So when Zoe and his restaurant crew had been searching for a method to rebound from the lack of enterprise attributable to the COVID-19 pandemic — and to heal from the injuries it triggered — they determined to give attention to what Zoe calls “our core strengths and passions.” In different phrases: noodles.
Earlier this 12 months, Zoe transitioned Chimera, his four-year-old full-service Pacific Rim-menued restaurant in Boulder, into Dragonfly Noodle, and final week, he opened a second Dragonfly at 1350 sixteenth St. in Denver, on the long-suffering sixteenth Road Mall.
Each places function a streamlined menu of ramen dishes (together with one that’s served with two char sui pork ribs on high), together with yaki udon, Singapore curry noodles, and all kinds of enjoyable bao buns, like spicy bulgogi, panko eggplant and butter lobster.
“The spectrum of Asian noodle dishes is so broad – it’s virtually limitless. So, I’ve chosen a few of my favorites … ones that mirror my palate and magnificence,” he continued. Zoe’s eating places are amongst only one or two others that make their very own noodles by hand in every retailer.
“Popping out of the pandemic, I needed a recent begin that’s now not tied to the previous and appears to the longer term,” mentioned Zoe, who additionally owns Zoe Ma Ma, not far-off at 1625 Wynkoop St. “The dragonfly is a revered image in Asian tradition. It symbolizes transformation.”
Transformation each for Zoe’s restaurant – and, he says, for the sixteenth St. Mall, which was already struggling to draw folks to its companies earlier than the pandemic and has since declined even additional as many workplace employees continued to make money working from home fairly than return to their desks within the metropolis. Most just lately, Banana Republic closed its retailer within the Denver Pavilions, and a deliberate two-year-long mall renovation mission has additional hindered pedestrian visitors.
“It’s unhappy to see the sixteenth Road Mall with so many eating places shuttered. It was at all times such a vibrant space in Denver,” mentioned Zoe, who in March was named as a semifinalist for the celebrated James Beard Basis Awards within the class of excellent restaurateur.
“I nonetheless imagine it would come again to the vibrancy it as soon as held. “I really feel it’s necessary for it to return again, however we will’t try this except there are companies there,” he added.
Earlier this 12 months, chef Mary Nguyen, who owns the restaurant Olive & Finch, mentioned she plans to open a restaurant, at 1490 sixteenth, additionally on the mall. Little Finch will specialise in takeout.
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