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CLOSE The new restaurant is considered the "union" between Old Town and the Poudre River District. "This is the gateway to the River District," said Ryan Houdek, who owns Union with Ty Fulcher of Social and Raffi Jergerian. Holly Engelman/The Coloradoan
Buy Photo Co-owner Ryan Houdek talks with hosts and servers during a staff training at The Union on Tuesday, February 20, 2018. The 6,000-square-foot restaurant on Jefferson Street opens Feb. 28. (Photo: Austin Humphreys/The Coloradoan)Buy Photo
Three new restaurants are opening this week — two in Old Town Fort Collins and one on Harmony Road.
Honolulu Poke Bar, a quick-serve sushi franchise, held a soft opening during the weekend at Front Range Village, at the intersection of Harmony and Ziegler roads. And Union, the newest concept from owners of Social, Rodizio Grill and the Melting Pot, opens to the public on Wednesday.
Who opened
Honolulu Poke takes the place of J Gumbo's, which closed in 2016. Owned by Nelson Zhu, Honolulu Poke recently opened at Johnstown Plaza at 2534.
Poke is a mix of raw cubes of seafood that are marinated in a soy sauce base; garnished with seaweed, cucumber, edamame, avocado; and served over rice or greens. Honolulu Poke Bar has more than 40 locations nationwide.
Alexandralaw1977, Getty Images/iStockphoto Poke was a hot trend in 2017 and it is now coming to Northern Colorado. Spicy tuna poke here is served with sesame oil powder and micro cilantro. (Photo: Getty Images)
Union, at the corner of Jefferson and Linden streets, bills itself as a combination diner/soda fountain serving updated classic sandwiches, soups and salads, milkshakes, champagne cocktails and fortified floats (regular milkshakes for the kids and ones with a kick for adults).
It will be open for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Simmer, 2519 S. Shields St., is in the shopping center just south of the Fort Collins Senior Center. Owned by Steve Lauer, who last year opened Cabana and Mac'd Up, serves globally inspired tapas in an eclectic ambiance.
Open for brunch, lunch and dinner, Simmer has a wide selection of cocktails, wine and beer. The brunch menu on the weekends serves traditional omelets and Benedicts, as well as French toast, and hot chicken with sweet potato waffles.
Dinner and lunch offers traditional options as well as small plates.
GameDay Sports Grill, 1027 W. Horsetooth Road, opened in mid-February in the space previously occupied by Pappy's Corner Pub, which shut down in January after serving a 10-day liquor license suspension for serving an underage patron in November.
Jim "JB" Quick purchased Pappy's and turned it into a "dedicated sports bar." Quick, a special education teacher in California, plans to move to Northern Colorado after he retires in June.
Restaurant inspections: Whole Foods offerings 'excellent'
Emporium Sports Bar, 925 S. Taft Hill Road, bills itself as a new pool hall. It has 13 pool tables and 11 dart boards in the space that was once Virtual Links, a virtual golf course, and before that housed a Blockbuster video store.
Emporium Sports Bar was inspired by the 1970s throwback film “Dazed and Confused” and is unaffiliated with Emporium Kitchen & Wine, which opened in the new Elizabeth Hotel in December in Old Town Fort Collins.
Choice City Wings, 120 Olive St., won't officially open to the public until March 5, but the restaurant has had a soft opening for several days.
Choice City replaces Uncle's Pizzeria, which closed last year. Russ Robinson, who also runs Choice City Butcher & Deli, said he wanted to create a place for the community to gather together for wings and salads.
The site's interior was gutted and redesigned, and Uncle's Pizzeria staff members were retained for the new spot.
Who closed
While new eateries are opening this month, two recently closed.
Grimaldi's, the oven-fired pizza franchise, was one of the first national eateries to sign on to the renovated Foothills shopping center in Midtown. It opened nearly two years ago and is the second restaurant to close at Foothills. The Melt shut down just months after it opened. Its location across from C.B. & Potts is still vacant.
Buy Photo Grimaldi's Coal Brick-Oven Pizzeria, 327 E. Foothills Parkway Suite 110, at Foothills Mall. (Photo: Sarah Jane Kyle/The Coloradoan)
Wasted Space, 253 Linden St., closed abruptly. A note on its Facebook page said, "an opportunity arose and we decided to sell our venue." Owners were working on a new space downtown with large patios, more slushies and more games.
Who's coming
Panhandler's, 2721 S. College Ave., closed the doors of its Campus West location nearly six months ago. The wait for its return is almost over.
New owner Louann DeCoursey expects the new Panhandler's will open in early March. Equipment from the old Panhandler's was moved into the new store on Monday.
More: New monthly pop-up restaurant series surfaces in Northern Colorado
Rush Bowls, the grab-and-go eatery — which has locations in Boulder and Denver — plans to open this spring at 3581 E. Harmony Road in the Harmony Commons development.
Rush Bowls serves a smoothie-like product made with fruit, frozen yogurt and acai (a high-nutrient fruit that tastes like a cross between a grape and blueberry).
Bowls are often topped with organic granola and honey. Many menu items feature added protein and vitamins.
Chick'nCone, located in the Exchange in the 200 block of North College Avenue, plans to open in the spring with a new take on chicken and waffles.
The restaurant that features waffle cones filled with chicken and a choice of six sauces started as a food truck in Pennsylvania. It will join CopperMuse Distillery; Churn Ice Cream; Fort Collins Doughnut Company, or FoCo DoCo; Vatos Tacos and Tequila; Steamies Burger Bar; and The Pizza Press. The Exchange hopes to open in April or May.
Who changed
Cozzola's Pizza, 241 Linden St., was sold to Corina Miller, who plans to rename the 30-year-old restaurant later this spring.
Like Panhandler's, which will open with new ownership but the same familiar pies, Miller plans to keep the full 17-member staff and the restaurant's recipes.
The Cozzola's Pizza at 1112 Oakridge Drive, will continue to operate as normal.
Coloradoan food and drink reporter Jake Laxen contributed to this report.
More: 30-year-old Fort Collins sandwich shop started as class project
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In the wake of increased nationwide crackdowns on immigrant workers at restaurants, restaurants and chefs across New York are finding ways to both celebrate the varied foods that immigrants bring, as well as plant themselves as pro-immigrant businesses.
Most recently, Broadway actor Adam Kantor and Dinner Lab founder Brian Bordainick teamed up for Story Course, an event series that combines food and theater to spotlight immigrant chefs. It’s dinner with an interactive show, and each one is tailored specifically to the chef’s immigration story.
“We are essentially consuming migration stories on a daily basis without necessarily knowing it. If you know the story behind the food you’re eating, does it taste different? Can you be emotionally moved by a dish if you understand it in a narrative way?” Kantor says. “We wanted to explore these ideas of what it means to be an immigrant and an American and especially living in NYC, which is a city full of immigrant chefs.”
First up is Jae Jung, who until recently was a cook at Le Bernardin and will soon work the line at The NoMad. Jung emigrated from Korea in 2009 to enroll at the Culinary Institute of America before spending years cooking in Nashville and eventually returning to New York City. Her menu is an exploration of that journey, starting with a strictly Korean course and incorporating Southern and French elements as the courses — and her story — progress.
“It’s not just about eating. I’ve seen a lot of talented chefs have to go back to their country even if they don’t want to,” Jung says. “Yeah, of course I like to go out to eat something cool and delicious, but with this you have more understanding about why we have to learn from each other.”
Next up in the series is Behzad Jamshidi, a Persian cook at Gabriel Kreuther. But Story Course isn’t the only dinner exploring immigration in NYC; others include Displaced Dinners, run by and benefitting refugees, and a League of Kitchens dinner at the James Beard House, put on by an organization that trains immigrants to give cooking lessons in their homes.
Restaurants and bars have been getting involved in other ways, too. Now-closed cocktail bar Coup donated to various charities, including ones that benefit immigrants and refugees; a Park Slope restaurant printed a message on its receipts that read, “Immigrants make America great”; and activist groups like Rise and Resist are protesting at restaurants they believe support anti-immigration agendas.
In Brooklyn, nonprofit Churches United for Fair Housing is working with 10 different restaurants and bars who are interested in issues including immigration. Venue Elsewhere donates some money to the nonprofit specifically for immigration, while Bushwick restaurant Seawolf and Williamsburg restaurant Lodge have menu items that support the entire organization, which also tackles issues like affordable housing and youth programming, says Rob Solano, executive director for CUFFH.
Solano started organizing after local businesses reached out about how they can donate beyond the annual holiday donation season, he says. Restaurants don’t always know the most effective ways to be consistent in playing a role, and an easy way is to work with nonprofits like his. The idea is that for diners, it’s a way to know that the businesses they frequent care about issues such as immigration, he adds.
“You gotta eat anyway, you gotta drink anyway,” Solano says. “This is an opportunity to go somewhere that’s supporting [civic-minded efforts].”
These efforts from restaurants leave some diners feeling involved — at Story Course, when the story prompted it, the attendees collectively banged out drum rolls on the table or roared during Jung’s dinner, which focused greatly on the chef’s relationship with her “tiger mom.” According to several conversations at the meal, many were left feeling more invested in Jung, her story, and her food.
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