Maureen Wallenfang
Appleton Post-Crescent
Published 8:14 AM EST Jan 10, 2020
Ethnic dining takes a big step forward this winter in the Fox Cities with four new restaurants opening their doors.
The area has always had an abundance of Mexican, Asian and multi-ethnic restaurants.
What these new places hope to add are beloved dishes from the old country, menus devoted to cuisines from a single country or new takes on old favorites.
“This area is welcoming to ethnic food,” said Phill Brown, owner of the coming Jamaican restaurant, Miss Brown’s Fine Foods II. “When I was growing up in Appleton, all we had was Chinese.”
The new arrivals:
Tony Nguyen Vietnamese Cuisine
Tony Nguyen will open his self-named restaurant, his first, on Saturday in Grand Chute. It’s at 555 N. Casaloma Drive, the former Wildflower restaurant space in the same building as Pier 1 and Golf Galaxy.
The big pizza oven is gone, and they’ve added eclectic decorations like bamboo hats as lampshades, a thatched tiki bar and a shrine with statues of Catholic saints. The words painted on the wall, Xin Chao, mean “hello.” On one recent menu testing night, a vintage Elvis movie played silently on a TV in one corner, and music ranged from Ragtime to jazz.
The menu covers a range of prices. The least expensive dishes are pho, lo mein and street food like banh mi sandwiches. Seafood, steak and caramelized pork entrees are higher. They make dumplings and rangoons on site, and use fresh herbs and vegetables in dishes.
“It’s Vietnamese cuisine only. It’s not a mix,” Nguyen said. That’s been his specialty since he moved from Vietnam and worked as a chef in the U.S. and Europe.
“Pho is our national dish and our most popular dish,” said Henry Nguyen, Tony’s brother. They cook beef bones for 18 hours to make the broth for the soup.
Open 11 a.m.- 9 p.m. Monday-Saturday; 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Sunday.
Sushi Lover
While all-you-can-eat sushi isn’t a brand new idea, and sushi might even be considered mainstream rather than exotic, Sushi Lover will also have Japanese dishes like tempura and hibachi entrees. It serves off a menu rather than a buffet, which is different than a traditional all-you-can-eat joint.
Sushi Lover will arrive in late January or February in downtown Appleton. It took the former Il Angolo space at 527 W. College Ave.
Miss Brown’s Fine Foods II
This casual Jamaican restaurant is taking shape in the Richmond Terrace space vacated by Green Gecko at 400 N. Richmond St. in Appleton. It aims to open by mid February.
Owner Phill Brown, grandson of the original Miss Brown of Negril, Jamaica, operated a seasonal late-night mobile food cart for several years serving jerk chicken and curry to bar patrons on College Avenue and for private events. “We felt like this was the next step. It was time to go to brick and mortar,” he said.
His mom, Jean, will be in the kitchen and knows all the treasured family recipes. His famous grandmother, by the way, was commemorated the song “Kinky Reggae” by her customer Bob Marley.
Thai Ginger Bistro
The new Thai restaurant aims to open by the end of February at 1619 W. College Ave. in Appleton. The space it transformed was once Whimsical Charm, a shop that moved a few blocks west.
Contact reporter Maureen Wallenfang at 920-993-7116 or mwallenfang@postcrescent.com. Follow her on Twitter at @wallenfang.
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