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The noodle bar is big business these days. In Manhattan, David Chang has elevated the simple, neighborhood noodle bar to celebrity status (and turned himself into a minor rock star in the process) with his Momofuku brand. In Denver, we’ve got one of the originals — Oshima Ramen, straight outta Japan–and Frank Bonanno’s Bones. And in Boulder, there’s Dave Query’s Happy Noodle House, which is where I began to wonder whether this fad (like California cuisine before it, like small plates restaurants or World Food was finally beginning to rub up against its point of diminishing returns.
So the question now becomes, is Happy Noodle the place where the noodle bar trend hits a dead end? Does Happy Noodle push the fad too far, heaping on one too many bowls of ramen, one too many lengths of udon? You’ll have to check back in tomorrow to read my review to find out for sure.
Your patience will be rewarded, though, because I’ve also got news on the opening of XO, another noodle bar, this one in the Jet Hotel, and a weird noodle bar-related rumor that, if true, would be some of the biggest food news in the city, like, ever.
And finally, I revisit to one of Dave Query’s other joints: Centro Latin Kitchen, where the food is good, the drinks are powerful and the waits are loooooong. Even when there are no other customers on the floor.
All that and more in this week’s issue. Check it out online or on newsstands tomorrow. And remember, you can get your daily fix right here on the Cafe Society blog and your moment-by-moment fix by following us on Twitter at cafewestword.
