Wellness Counter opens in Boulder in May, spotlighting dry-aged fish

For most diners, the standard of a bit of fish is measured by how lengthy it takes to journey from the ocean (or river or lake) to the plate.

Wellness Counter, a brand new Japanese restaurant scheduled to open May 7 at 1117 Pearl St., is making a barely completely different case.

The Boulder restaurant from Phoebe and Steven Lee, the couple behind Denver’s plant-based Wellness Sushi, will middle on seafood and a dry-aging program that explores the concept that fish, very like a ribeye or a wheel of gruyere, can truly enhance with age, in keeping with a launch.

That program is predicted to be one of many defining options of the restaurant. In Japanese cooking, dry-aging has lengthy been used to deepen taste and alter texture. Instead of the brilliant, just-cut high quality many diners affiliate with uncooked fish, the approach can produce one thing firmer, richer and extra concentrated.

For Denver sushi chef Steven Lee, the brand new restaurant returns to the strategies that first drew him to Japanese cooking. According to the press launch, the Boulder idea is extra rooted in seafood, fish dealing with and conventional preparation than the vegan format of Wellness Sushi allowed. Phoebe and Steven Lee, who’re initially from Myanmar, stated the brand new restaurant is supposed to construct on the concepts behind Wellness Sushi quite than exchange them.

“The philosophy we developed through Wellness Sushi felt bigger than the format itself,” Phoebe Lee stated. “We began to feel the limitations of working within one framework, especially when it came to expressing traditional techniques more fully.”

Phoebe Lee will oversee the front-of-house and beverage program, which is able to embody inexperienced teas, gyokuro and sencha, sourced from Kyoto, in addition to sake, cocktails, wine and low. The menu can be anticipated to incorporate nigiri, hand rolls, crudos, robata grill dishes, claypot rice and house-made shokupan, or Japanese milk bread.

Wellness Counter’s official opening is slated for May 7, however diners can get an unique sneak peek throughout Mile High Asian Food Week, from April 26 via May 1, when the Boulder restaurant will supply complimentary sago brûlée with every meal, a launch says.

Once it’s absolutely open, Wellness Counter will function seven days per week, with service operating till 10 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.