Roswell’s newest eatery, Shanghai Street Food and Bar, has only been open for five weeks, but clients are already yearning for more of its localized authenticity.
Located at 112 Magnolia Street, Shanghai Street Food and Bar sits in a hundred-year-antique, 1400-square-foot house that grew into a restaurant.
Owner and self-proclaimed foodie Aaron Smith left his corporate advertising and marketing activity just a few months ago to pursue his dream of proudly owning his eating place. His father changed into a commercial enterprise inside the eating place for many years, so Smith became drawn to the restaurant way of life.
“Roswell itself doesn’t have a sincerely desirable ethnic cuisine, not inside the historic district anyway,” Smith stated. I desired to bring that right here in Roswell. I wanted to do this in a manner that felt like Roswell, true to Roswell, and now not foreign, so that’s what you notice in the informal surroundings.”
All menu gadgets are made clean and from scratch. Smith works with neighborhood farms and agencies, which include Athena Farms and Flux Ice Cream. All proteins are pure, and Shanghai also offers alternatives for vegans and vegetarian clients.
Menu items include savory red meat dumplings, tofu fried rice, lobster fried rice, and dan noodles crafted from scratch with Szechuan sauce.
“Because we take a lot of care in our guidance and our proteins, it doesn’t allow us to have 207 dishes, so alternatively, we focus those efforts on the ones that suggest the maximum, the ones that have the maximum identity,” Smith stated.
Smith says the most popular menu gadget thus far are the duck confit hen wings, which take three days to assemble. The hen wings are cured for two days; marinate them in a single day, which confit them in duck fat. Right before the wings are served, they are flash-fried for clean, crispy pores and skin.
In addition to the fresh farm components, Shanghai is a chef-driven kitchen. Its head chef, Kolya Katz, has an expert culinary history in modern cooking. Katz has labored at Restaurant 356 and Marcel in Midtown and apprenticed below renowned chef Shaun Doty.
“Shanghai is a colorful and eclectic town,” Smith stated. I notion if we convey Chinese food to Roswell, it’s important that we recognize it in a genuine manner. It must be in a way that east meets west. We’re not right here trying to suit a subculture or try to faux that we’re Chinese.”
The restaurant also offers $3 valet parking for guests and prides itself on having many inexpensive drinks. Smith says he desires to make it, , approachable for people to come and drink in reality.
“We get all walks of existence in right here,” Smith said. “Every age, each ethnicity, each kind of possible individual lines up at this bar collectively, and I suppose that’s one of the first-rate parts about it.”
Shanghai Street Food and Bar is open Tuesday through Thursday from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 5 p.m. to 11:45 p.m., And Sunday from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m.