Twin Dragon to Close on April 30 After 47 Years in Business

Shiou Jefferson is ready for retirement. Now 77, she's been the owner of Twin Dragon, a mainstay Chinese restaurant in Englewood, since 1976. After recently selling the building, she's busy packing boxes of memorabilia in preparation for the eatery's last day, April 30.

Saying goodbye can be tough, though, especially when she sees customers who have been coming in for decades. "I cry probably three or four times a day," she says. But after the stresses of the pandemic and the ongoing struggle to find staff, she's ready to move on.

Along with dishing up plenty of its popular sesame chicken and other staples, Twin Dragon is well known for its ornate decor — which is also being packed up. "I'll probably take it to Goodwill," Jefferson says of the many items strewn throughout the large space. That space will become another restaurant, though she isn't sure what kind of food it will serve.

Jefferson's family moved from China to Korea, where she was born before the split between the north and the south. After war broke out, they left their family farm in 1948 and relocated to South Korea. Eventually, she was able to attend college in Taiwan, earning a bachelor's degree in history and education; she later got a master's degree in Japan.

She moved to the United States in 1976 to attend the University of Denver and began working for Twin Dragon; at the time, it was located in a small space on the east side of the 2900 block of South Broadway. When the original owner decided to move back to Hong Kong, he gave Jefferson a personal loan so that she could buy the restaurant.
By 1981, the place was so busy that she decided to move to a bigger location, and she was eventually able to buy the entire building at 3021 South Broadway, cementing Twin Dragon's role in the community. The restaurant is filled with plaques commemorating Jefferson's volunteer efforts over the years. She is also the current chair of the Colorado Advisory Board for the International Leadership Foundation.

Twin Dragon itself has won many awards, including recognition in Westword's annual Best of Denver — in 2000, for example, it was recognized for having the Best Sock-It-To-You Drinks.
Jefferson is particularly proud of being named a Legacy Award recipient in 2019 by the Chinese Restaurant Foundation, when Twin Dragon landed at number 30 on a list of 100 eateries nationwide that were recognized for "time-honored legacy of excellence."

She is also very proud of her son, Joe Jefferson, who served as Englewood mayor from 2015 to 2018 and was elected to serve as the city's presiding municipal judge in November 2017; he still holds that position.

Business has been slow in recent years, she admits, but during Twin Dragon's final days, she hopes to see more familiar faces as she prepares for the next chapter of her life.

Twin Dragon is located at 3021 South Broadway in Englewood; it will be open from 11 a.m. to 8:45 p.m. Wednesday through Friday and noon to 9:15 p.m. Saturday and Sunday until April 30. For more information, visit twindragonrestaurant.com.