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Photo by Stephanie Breijo
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EAT Restaurant Partners brings the building at 5710 Grove Ave. back to its Chinese-dining roots. (Photo by Stephanie Breijo)
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Toward the back of the restaurant, guests can watch the wok station in action from the 12-seat private dining area. (Photo by Stephanie Breijo)
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The Samurai Cowboy cocktail, made from Flor de Caña five-year rum, house-made green tea falernum, papaya and lime (Photo by Stephanie Breijo)
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Photo by Stephanie Breijo
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Photo by Stephanie Breijo
Everything old is new again, or at least it is at 5710 Grove Ave. Last weekend, EAT Restaurant Partners opened Beijing on Grove, bringing the space — recently home to The Blue Goat — back to its Chinese-dining roots. The restaurant group's concept swap brings owner Chris Tsui full circle; in the 1980s, his father took over The Peking on Grove, which sat at that address from 1977-2009 offering traditional Chinese and Chinese-American cuisine. Now it's serving Cantonese-leaning dishes, but with a few modern touches.
"[Chef Fei Zhao] has some fun with some dishes ... for example, [Chinese dishes] used to have some cool names like 'Dragon Phoenix' and 'Happy Family,' so now we have a 'Happy Family,' but we call it the 'Modern Family,' " says Tsui. "We try to have some fun with it, not be too serious."
The décor mirrors that sentiment with hand-shaped, rippled-paper lanterns from Denmark, and so does the art: Two photographs by renowned visual artist Chen Man juxtapose the new and the old. In "Miss Wan Studies Hard," a fashionable girl with couture handbag and a stack of books flies past Tiananmen Square on her bike; in "Funky Great Wall," a model sporting a large afro and space-age silver spandex looks out across the 2,000-plus-year-old marvel.
Some of the menu is reminiscent of that at Fat Dragon, which is also run by EAT Restaurant Partners and chef Fei Zhao, though there are a few slight differences: Both offer shrimp appetizers, though the sauces differ. Some staples such as chicken with broccoli, Tsui says, had to travel across town. Much like Fat Dragon and the restaurant group's other ventures, Beijing on Grove will offer a fairly large tap selection — many of the beers locally made — and cocktails, in this case designed by Demi Ripley and Jonathan Kibiloski, both members of the EAT Restaurant family.
To flip the space from Blue Goat to Beijing on Grove, the team removed the booths, the banquettes and any dividing walls, had the floors redone, and brought in new chairs, light fixtures, wallpaper and patio furniture. "You had all this bar energy that couldn't get over into the rest of the dining room," says Director of Operations Ren Mefford. Now, the restaurant feels much more open and seats about 100, including the 20-ish spots at the bar that spans nearly the full length of the restaurant. The window peering into the kitchen remains, and now overlooks the wok station; to book the semi-private room with a kitchen view, round up a group of your friends (though this room seats no more than 12).
Beijing on Grove is dinner-only this week, but next Tuesday it launches lunch and to-go services. The team is considering brunch, most likely to appear on Saturdays. After all, Mefford says, Peking used to do a Chinese-food brunch buffet. "And there's a huge tradition of brunch in Chinese culture, the dim sum carts," he says, adding that dim sum is just one of a few options they're considering. "We're going to ease in, get our feet under us first."
Beijing on Grove is now open at 5710 Grove Ave., serving lunch and dinner Monday through Thursday, and dinner only Friday through Sunday. Lunch service begins next Tuesday, Feb. 7.
