Fred Aoki, who was born in California, was one of the first people to lease space in Sakura Square when it was built in 1960. Back before WWII, Aoki's parents sent him to Japan as a teenager to learn the difficult art of turkey sexing, a skill that later kept him out of Japanese internment camps: He was the only turkey sexer Denver had at the time. Aoki made good money as a turkey sexer, and he used it to open Fred's Place, which he later turned into Akebono.
A few months ago, though, Aoki sold the space to Yee Wing Wong, who most recently was the executive chef at Imperial Chinese Seafood Restaurant (431 South Broadway). Wong had been a chef in his native Hong Kong before moving to Japan for eleven years, and he's used all 25 years of his kitchen experience to revamp Akebono's menu; it now includes Chinese-inspired dishes and other Asian-style items. The name remains the same, however, as does the Akebono sushi bar. "The restaurant is not 100 percent Chinese now," says an employee. "Mr. Wong has a dream of offering a variety of Asian foods that come from all of the Asian countries, and this is just the beginning of that dream."
My idea of a dream is Akebono's happy hour, which involves $1 sushi and specially priced rolls from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. The eatery is closed on Sundays, by the way. And from now on, we'll just have to sex our own turkeys.
Asian flew: While Akebono turns Chinese, things look grim in southeast Denver. First La Chine, named Best Chinese in the Best of Denver 2000, disappeared with little fanfare (see last week's Bite), and now Golden Plate, whose hot-and-sour dumpling soup won an award in 2001, has hung up its chopsticks. A sign out front of the once-bustling eatery at 7180 East Hampden Avenue announces that the building is for sale; the disconnected telephone says nothing at all. Nor will you learn anything about Golden Plate's fate by calling the very open Golden Plate II, at 9880 West Girton Drive in Lakewood. An employee there insists that despite the similarity in names, II has different owners and no connection with the original Golden Plate -- whatever might have happened to it.
