Kenneth Wan and Doris Yuen stood in the doorway of their new restaurant this week, catching oranges from a lion dancer while cymbals and drums banged away in the background.
In Chinese culture, the lion dance is a way to consecrate temples and new businesses. The lion, a costume with two people handling the head and tail, “eats” an orange and spits it back out. It’s good luck for whoever can catch it. Luckily, Yuen and Wan had good grips that evening.
“Blessing a restaurant is very traditional for Chinese culture, and we thought it’d be a cool way to make an announcement to the neighborhood that we’re here,” Wan said.
Yuen and Wan are opening MAKfam, their first full-service restaurant at 39 W. 1st Ave., next door to Snooze’s new South Broadway location, on Nov. 1. Formerly called Meta Asian Kitchen and located inside the Avanti Food & Beverage market hall in Denver’s LoHi neighborhood, MAKfam stands for Meta Asian Kitchen. The couple celebrated with friends and family on Monday.
“When we first moved to Colorado and opened as Meta Asian Kitchen in Avanti in 2019, the goal was always to open our own restaurant, and it feels surreal to finally be here,” Wan said.
MAKfam’s goal is to elevate traditional Cantonese dishes. Specialties include Chinatown-style dumplings, deep-fried mala wings with a kick, scallion pancakes, bao buns and sizzling spicy hand-pulled noodles. They will also have char sui and chicken-and-egg fried rice.
Larger bites include a BBQ pork and rice plate; a salt-n-pepper chicken and rice plate; and the Mama Wan’s pork belly and rice plate, named to honor Wan’s mom.
In addition to the food, there will be signature cocktails — one is served in a ceramic lucky-cat vessel — alongside beer from Asian-owned and Asian-led breweries (such as Japas Cervejaria, a female-run Japanese-Brazilian Brewery).
The decor will feel familiar to some as it incorporates Chinese motifs often found “in neon-lit Hong Kong noodle parlors” and in New York City’s Chinatown, Yuen said. There will also be Kung Fu movies shown behind the bar. “This restaurant is a love letter to ABCs (American Born Chinese).”
“There’s not another Chinese concept similar to us in this neighborhood, so we feel like we can stand out here and offer something special for the Baker community,” Yuen added.
The couple moved here from Jersey City, and both grew up in the restaurant industry. Wan got his start training under some big New York City names like David Chang of Momofuku, Joe Ng of RedFarm, and Matty Bennett of The Lucky Bee. And Yuen, a Hong Kong native, learned how to cook from her father, who was also a chef.
After they closed their Avanti stall in April, Yuen and Wan tested MAKfam inside Honor Farm, the haunted-themed cocktail bar at 1526 Blake St. That’s where they met bar owner Lexi Healy, owner of the pirate-themed bar Hell or High Water on the second floor of Honor Farm, who helped the couple develop their drink program.
MAKFam’s cocktail bar focuses on playful Chinese ingredients. There’s grass jelly in the Grass Panda vodka cocktail. The Hong Kong Iced Tea, a play on a Long Island Iced Tea, is served in a Vita Lemon Tea box, which Yuen has been drinking since she was a little kid.
Then there’s the MSGin, which highlights the restaurant’s use of MSG, or monosodium glutamate, the much-maligned flavor enhancer that is often added to food at Chinese restaurants.
“We’re proud to say we use MSG in our food, and I feel like there’s a lot of negative connotation with it, but you could say the same thing about sugar, and we want to take that idea back,” Wan said. In fact, there is a playful piece of art on the wall featuring the slogan “It’s better with MSG,” and depicting a Chinese girl holding an umbrella similar to Morton Salt’s iconic image.
39 W. 1st Ave., Denver; Closed Tuesdays; Open Sun.-Thurs. from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. and until 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday; makfam.co
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