Every Opening and Closing This Week: Saigon Noodle Club Debuts in Edgewater

The name of their new place is more polite than Pho King Rapidos, the title of the food truck that husband-and-wife team Long Nguyen and Shauna Seamen revved up during the pandemic, but the food is just as tasty. After a few stops in other spots — Avanti, a shared space in Park Hill, and plenty of pop-ups — they've opened Saigon Noodle Club at the Edgewater Public Market.

“We’ve had to fight with people considering our name to be crass,” Nguyen told us last spring, when they'd decided to open in Edgewater under another name. “We aren’t going to serve the same menu we did at Avanti or the food truck, so the name change, the evolution, would help with that.” Although many of PKR's bomb-ass food favorites are still available, the focus here is on fun, affordable, fresh noodle bowls with fusion influences. “Sometimes Shauna and I, if it’s like an indulgent night where we stay in and then get to order Chinese takeout…coming home and just, we just love eating lo mein out of to-go boxes, so we were like, ‘Let’s do noodle bowls, but let’s do our takes on them,’” Nguyen says.

This won't be the last stop for the couple — the dream is ultimately for their own space with a liquor license that they can fully control — but Edgewater is a good place to park for now, with the economy so uncertain. “It’s tucked in the middle right between Denver, Lakewood, Wheat Ridge," Nguyen notes, "so it’s a good opportunity to have a lot of exposure to many different types of people.”

Wild Taco will soon open an outpost in Edgewater Public Market, too, after closing its location on East Seventh Avenue last Sunday. Pub on Pearl poured its last drink that day, as well.

And after five years, today's the last day for the Molecule Effect at 300 South Logan Street; its Broadway spot will remain open. "It’s with full hearts and deep gratitude that we share this news with our amazing community," the owners posted on Instagram. "This Saturday will be our last day at our Wash Park location."

Washington Park got a new place, though, when Broderick, a cozy cocktail bar from the Broderick & Co. distillery, started pouring yesterday. Up in Boulder, Ajax Tavern — with siblings at the Little Nell in Aspen and Limelight Denver — opened in the Limelight Boulder yesterday, too.

Also now open is Cherry Creek's Town Pump Provisions, which hosted an August 15 ribbon-cutting. Owner Dana Monfort compares it to a bodega, but no bodega ever had as cool a build-out as the Little Man Ice Cream setup in this place.

In other restaurant news:

• Surrounded by Colfax construction, Pete's Kitchen posted a plaintive plea for more support, and Teague Bohlen responded with an ode to this Denver mainstay.
  


• Globe-trotting chef Richard Sandoval, who gave Tamayo in Larimer Square a facelift earlier this year, is back in town for two special events next week.
  


• And the driver in the crash that killed the owners of the Abide Ride Burrito Truck last monthhas been charged in connection with their deaths.
  

All the restaurant openings and closings this week:*

Openings

Ajax Tavern, Limelight Boulder, 1295 University AVenue, Boulder
Broderick, 1080 South Gaylord Street
Next Level Veggie Grill, 1605 East Evans Avenue (rebranded from Next Level Burgers)
Saigon Noodle Bowl, Edgewater Public Market, 5505 West 20th Avenue, Edgewater
Town Pump Provisions, 2810 East Third Avenue

Closings

Molecule Effect, 300 South Logan Street
Pub on Pearl, 1101 South Pearl Street
Roadhouse Boulder Depot, 2366 Junction Place, Boulder
Wild Taco, 215 East Seventh Avenue

*Or earlier, and not included on a previous list.

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