Miniso Comes to Belmar

Asian pop-up stores are, well, popping up everywhere, and one of the biggest retailers is Miniso, with some 7,000 stores world wide. Just last summer, my family dragged me into the Miniso on the Champs-Èlysées in Paris on our way back from the Arc de Triomphe.

Now Lakewood's own Champs-Èlysées (that's W. Alaska Drive, in case you were wondering) has a Miniso, and it's just as weird and wonderful as the one in Paris.

For starters, it's a literal beacon. Walk by anytime--day or night--and you'll find yourself drawn to the brightly-lit rows of blind boxes, plushies, backpacks and other assorted plastic knick-knacks, all neatly stacked under the store's take-no-prisoners interior lighting. Really, I dare you to try and walk by and ignore the place.

Inside, Miniso carries absolutely nothing that appeals to me (except for maybe the bags of shrimp-flavored corn puffs, which remind me of the two years I spent teaching in South Korea, drinking in seedy bars where a basket of these shrimp puffs were served with every round). Otherwise it's all manga blind-boxes, Hello Kitty plushies, and hair ties.

However, I'm not Miniso's target demographic. What I do see is lots of people walking around Belmar with their bright red Miniso bags, grinning with excitement, which is great to see. Will the novelty wear off, though? Miniso is expanding at a break-neck pace, with at least four stores in the Denver metro area already. 

One thing you won't find at Miniso are Lububu, which are sold exclusively at rival retailer Pop Mart, which does not yet have any locations in Colorado.

Onto Coffee Brings in the Crowds

 

Onto Coffee has opened in Belmar in the space at 7150 W Alaska Dr. that has been home to several coffee shops over the last twenty years.

With an Asian-inspired menu (think matcha, ube, and hojicha lattes and egg salad spam "sandos"), Onto Coffee appears to be a hit, with a line of people waiting to order every time I've wandered by.

I haven't tried anything off their menu, and their interior decor is a little spartan for my taste (I prefer coffee shops that encourage a little lounging, something Onto Coffee, with its straight backed chairs and shared counter tops, clearly isn't going for). A business that brings in the crowds, however, is a definite win for downtown Lakewood and the Belmar shopping district.

Coming Soon: KPot Korean BBQ & Hot Pot

Walking through the Belmar Plaza this morning I spied the sign below in the window of the old Qdoba corporate office space. Most of the old Qdoba office has become the home of Google Fiber, but the I love the idea of the plaza getting another restaurant. And Korea BBQ? Yes please.

Having lived in Korea, I have my own thoughts about what makes for good Korean BBQ, but I'm excited to try KPot when it opens, and I'll write a review after I've had a chance to check it out. In the meantime, it's good to see another restaurant coming to the Belmar Plaza.

 

Building Remodels: Torchy’s Tacos Falls Short While Belmar Groves Looks Successful

While one of my favorite things to post about on this blog is new construction, the reuse of existing buildings can also be exciting. It’s rare, however, to see it done right. 

Part of the problem is that so much of Lakewood’s existing infrastructure is low-density and car-based. Think one story buildings surrounded by a sea of empty and unused asphalt. Reusing these buildings, while cheap, doesn’t do anything to build a vibrant and walkable downtown. The Belmar shopping district is a perfect example of this. The old Villa Italia mall was surrounded by acres of unnecessary parking. Tearing the entire thing down paved the way for the Belmar to rise as a walkable downtown. 

With that in mind, let’s focus on two building remodels currently underway in downtown Lakewood—one of which appears successful from a design standpoint, and the other not so much.

The first remodel is of the Belmar Groves Apartments on the north side of Alameda and Wadsworth. Metro West Housing Solutions is the developer, and like everything they do, the Belmar Groves remodel appears to be a quality project. Starting with 118 apartments of undistinguished 1970’s design, Metro West is removing the bland outer facade and replacing it with a modern facade featuring a number of different textures and feels. The apartments will receive new kitchens, bathrooms, flooring, HVAC systems—the whole shebang.

What’s really exciting, however, is Metro West’s emphasis on connecting residents to the spaces outside their units. Apartments are getting balconies and doors that open onto the complex’s updated landscaping. There will be gardens, BBQ areas and a playground. 

It’s an impressive design of the kind we’ve come to expect from Metro West Housing Solutions. There work to bring affordable housing to Lakewood has been continually impressive.

The second remodel is being done by Torchy’s Tacos, which is taking over the defunct Village Inn location at 7381 W. Alameda, across from Belmar and along the beautifully renovated Alameda Parkway Business Improvement District. Although the interior of the old Village Inn building is being renovated, the outside footprint has been left unchanged. That’s my problem with it.

The Village Inn was a car-centric building that did nothing to interact with the surrounding space. It remains that way, despite its transition into a taco joint. Literally the only exterior change appears to be the replacement of the words “Village Inn” with “Torchy’s Tacos.” 

In my view, a better plan would have involved adding outdoor seating and perhaps a garage-style door connecting patrons to the landscaping along Alameda and adding to a sense of “urban bustle.” 

I put this term in quotes, but it’s a real thing. Being able to see people in an indoor/outdoor space encourages others to come into the business and patronize it. Connecting what’s happening inside a building to what’s going on outside keeps public spaces from feeling empty or dangerous. It’s what the Belmar Groves projects gets right and the Torchy’s Taco project ignores.

  

Mason's Dumpling Shop: Another Promising New Belmar Restaurant

Another promising new restaurant opened recently in downtown Lakewood's Belmar neighborhood. Mason's Dumpling Shop serves handmade boiled, steamed and pan-fried dumplings. The owners are restaurateurs from Los Angeles and the Belmar Mason's is their third Colorado location. 

Now, I wouldn't call myself a dumpling expert, but I have eaten a lot of dumplings over the years, including at restaurants that are often hyped as the best of the best--specifically, Din Tai Fung and Goubuli Dumpling--so I was excited to try Mason's.

Din Tai Fung is a Taiwan-based chain that makes some of the best soup dumplings you can get. When you walk into their Seattle location, you walk past a glass window showing the kitchen crew hard at work rolling out and filling an enormous number of dumplings. The amount of dumplings that location makes in a day must be incredible, and it shows in the amazing freshness of the dumplings they serve. The dumplings I ate there were about as perfect as any I've ever eaten.

Meanwhile, dumpling aficionados know Goubuli Dumpling (狗不理包) is a restaurant in the northern Chinese city of Tianjin that is world-famous for its dumplings and buns. Rather like Din Tai Fung, Goubuli Dumpling serves their signature dish in astonishing quantities, and their sprawling, labyrinthine location is always packed. I'm sure there are debates about whether Goubuli Dumpling is too touristy, but I found their dumplings tasty and absolutely perfectly-prepared.

What do I consider tasty? Basically, I like dumplings when they're served hot and evenly cooked--not too doughy but also not too chewy (or crispy, if pan-fried). Cooking dumplings like that is something I suspect takes a lot of practice, because over the years I've had a lot of dumplings that were pretty mediocre, even at otherwise really top-notch restaurants. These places didn't specialize in dumplings, and it showed. 

On the day I went to Mason's, they were advertising that they were in a "soft opening" and still working to get everything just right. 

As we went in, I was impressed with the remodel of the location from its previous incarnation as a seafood-slash-sports bar (Seafood Empire), and I was glad to see the annoying big screen TVs gone. (I hate restaurants with televisions in them, but that's another story). Mason's isn't fancy, but it's clean and comfortable. Vibe-wise, it reminds me of a typical dumpling house you might wander into in Los Angeles' Monterey Park neighborhood. (Side note: if you're ever in Monterey Park, Mama Lu's Dumpling House is worth the long lines.)

At Mason's, we ordered six or seven dishes off the menu. First up were the pan-fried pork dumplings, and I was blown away at how perfectly they were cooked. Really, they were that outstanding. They were so good that we immediately ordered a second plate. Unfortunately, the dumplings in that second round were alternately too doughy on one side and too crisp on the other. The cook, it was clear, had rushed the second order and not paid enough attention to getting them just right.

Next we tried the soup dumplings. I find these way too doughy at places like Star Kitchen (really, they just never seem to get them the way I like them), so I was pleased to find Mason's soup dumplings cooked perfectly. To round things out, we ordered the pan fried beef, cheese and onion dumplings and several steamed buns--the stewed Angus beef and stewed pork belly. These were well-received by my party, with the light fluffiness of the buns and the savory stewed beef as the standouts.

Overall, it was a fun, tasty meal and I absolutely recommend you go by and try the place. Certainly I'll be back again to see how things have progressed once they're fully open. If they can make every order of pan-fried pork dumplings as good as that first plate we received, Mason's Dumpling House is going to be a hit.

   

Mono Gogo's Korean Fried Chicken is Excellent

You may have noticed that hot chicken restaurant Mono Gogo recently took over the space next to the Belmar Century 16 theater that was formerly Menya Noodle Bar. Menya's noodles were good but not great, while Mono Gogo serves up some of the best hot chicken right now in Denver. End of story. 

Except, it's actually more complicated than that. 

Mono Gogo and Menya are both owned by Denver restauranteur JW Lee, whose Seoul Hospitality Group also owns Belmar's Wasabi Sushi Bar and a whole bevy of other restaurants in other Denver-area locations. 

Lee specializes in a range of Korean restaurants. Some serve what I would consider more traditional Korean recipes (I'm basing this on the two years I lived in South Korea), while others are delightfully Americanized (Bulgogi nachos, anyone?) He's always trying something interesting. And he has so many new restaurants that I'm only now learning about some I've got to try, like his dumpling-focused restaurant Seoul ManDoo, and his Hawaiian-Japanese style donut shop Mochinut. 

Right now, however, I want to give another shout-out to Downtown Lakewood's Mono Gogo. The joint serves some seriously good food. Specifically, Mono Gogo needs to be your go-to place for hot wings. I like the soy garlic and the hot spicy, but there are a couple of other flavors as well--all of them light and crispy and absolutely delicious. You can even wash them down with Mono Gogo's own rice lager, made at the Mono Mono Brewery in Longmont. 

It's not elegant dining. Everything comes served in baskets or paper boxes. There's a napkin dispenser on each table, and far too many flat screen TVs playing spammy adverts. But it does remind me a bit of the fried chicken restaurant on my block when I lived in Busan back in the 1990s. That place wasn't fine dining either. It was a quick place to grab take-out on the way home from work, tasty and hot. 

The difference is I never had fried chicken in South Korea that was even half as good as the birds served up by Mono Gogo. So the next time you're in Belmar, drop in and order some soy garlic wings and a beer and pretend you're still a young English teacher in South Korea on your way back home after a long day at work. That's what I do.

Change Is Good, Mostly.

Change is good. Mostly. I think. Or at least, it's good on balance. 

What change am I talking about? New businesses. New landlords. 

I'm excited by the soon-to-open Lady Nomada, because I live in Downtown Lakewood, and what I really want is a patio to go and have drinks on in the summer (if it's ever going to be summer again, which is a different topic altogether). At the same time, I'm sad to see Sur La Tabla gone, along with Baker Street.

Actually, it doesn't matter what I think, change is happening. The pandemic closed a lot of businesses. Others retrenched. The old ownership structure of Belmar in Downtown Lakewood went belly-up and Bridge 33 bought the property with the goal of finishing the project.

Bridge 33 has been aggressively trying to fill empty storefronts, and that work is starting to bear fruit. A Lululemon pop-up has filled the space vacated by Guess at the corner of Teller and Alaska. Directly across from the Lululemon pop-up is Garage Sale Vintage, a pop-up thrift store/bar. 

As I mentioned above, Arvada-based Mexican restaurant Lady Nomada is renovating the space that was previously the Italian joint Brodo. And the old Sur La Table location on Teller has become...a Fidelity brokerage??? Well, as I said, change is good on balance, but perhaps not in every detail.

It's also been a busy few years for me personally, and I haven't had a much time to write this blog. I'm still busy, but I'm going to try and post more regularly, now that Belmar and Downtown Lakewood have come out of their pandemic lull.

So yeah, change is good, mostly. Let's see what the year brings.