DENVER — A Chinese-trained chef is investing in the Colfax corridor, bringing his skills to a new business as others struggle amid ongoing East Colfax bus rapid transit (BRT) construction.
“The City of Denver has a vision that they want to make Colfax into a community that brings back more traffic and newer people coming back to the corridor,” chef Xi Nuan Zheng told Denver7.
Zheng’s new dim sum restaurant, Ma’s Kitchen, is opening at the corner of Colfax Avenue and York Street.
The restaurant space was previously occupied by Rolling Pin Pizza, and before that by Tacos, Tequila, Whiskey. Ma’s Kitchen is now the third restaurant to occupy the storefront in the past three years.
Zheng believes he can weather the conditions that caused others to close. He also thinks the business the BRT construction will eventually bring is worth the initial struggle.
“Even with all the BRT and craziness at the moment, they still want to reinvest in the community,” Alan Cheng, a business associate of Zheng, said.
Zheng may be new to Colfax, but he has insight into what it takes to run a business there. His brother has operated Okinawa, a longtime sushi staple along the corridor, for the past 15 years.
It’s that connection, Zheng said, that gives him an appreciation for the small businesses that came before him.
“I always heard my brother saying that Tacos, Tequila, Whiskey was very loved by the community. They were the foundation of small businesses along Colfax,” he said.
As a nod to the restaurants that came before, Ma’s Kitchen retained several design features from its predecessors. An original storage door from Tacos, Tequila, Whiskey stays true to its street vendor style, and a wall of rolling pins from Rolling Pin Pizza adorns the dining room.
It’s Zheng’s way of paying homage to those who helped build the community that Ma’s Kitchen hopes to be part of in the next chapter.
“We want Colfax to be a city where the community can be one,” Zheng said, “not another forgotten street that people just pass by.”
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