A former Chinese food restaurant located at 516 Elmwood Avenue will soon be home to a Thai, Burmese, and sushi take-out restaurant called Asian Street Food. This is great news for a block of Elmwood that could use an infusion of this nature. It turns out that the new owners are experienced hands, who are ready to take the idea of Asian street food to another level. Than Oo and and his wife Kapru Paw (Karen people of Burma) are no strangers to cooking, or the local restaurant scene. Oo was a chef at Sun Restaurant for six years, and also delivered for Skip The Dishes. Paw was a waitress at Sun. Combined, the two have the necessary ingredients to make an excellent go of it.
I spoke to Chris Delprince, who has been acting as consultant for Oo and Paw. Delprince says that we’re looking at the American dream story here. “They saved up their money for ten years,” he told me. “I’ve been helping them to negotiate the lease, and the purchase of equipment. It’s interesting that a lot of Burmese wanted this spot on Elmwood. Oo knew that it was the space that he wanted because he worked at Skip The Dishes and realized that this was a prime takeout location on Elmwood. They have been cleaning the place up, putting new floors in, and now they are only waiting for the Ansul system to be installed. Then they will be ready to go. There will be limited seating, but it will be mostly take-out.”
Hopefully this is the injection of life that the 500 block needs to attract a couple more dynamic businesses. Personally, I can’t wait for this one to open. Now, can we get a great Chinese food restaurant to open in the city?
