Tommy Lee wanted to take advantage of Hop Alley’s remodel last year and open a “little restaurant within a restaurant,” he said.
On Thursday Feb. 15, the owner of Hop Alley, as well as Uncle ramen, is debuting a six-seat chef’s counter within the hip Asian restaurant at 3500 Larimer St. in RiNo.
“This will be completely unrelated to Hop Alley,” Lee said. “You won’t be able to get the chef’s counter dishes in the restaurant or the Hop Alley dishes at the counter. We wanted to offer another creative outlet for our team, since they have tons of ideas and culinary backgrounds outside of Hop Alley’s Chinese influence.”
Hop Alley shut down from Dec. 2022 to Feb. 2023 for a kitchen remodel and expansion into an adjacent former marketing company space. The extra 1,100 square feet next door includes a private dining room, and now, a six-seat chef’s counter in front of the new, secondary kitchen.
“The idea is to have a more intimate experience with higher-end products, but we also have the opportunity to collaborate with more chefs in town for pop-ups on this side of the restaurant, while we run normal Hop Alley service on the other side,” Lee said.
Hop Alley recently hosted chef Justin Freeman, the current executive chef of Somebody People, who’s planning to open his own local pizza shop, Monarch Pizza.
The chef’s counter, run by executive chef Geoff Cox and his team, will rotate, “depending on what they want to cook for the night,” Lee said. For the grand opening, guests can choose from an Asian-inspired menu, including an oyster omelet ($31), chicken-fried swordfish ($35) and chocolate tofu for dessert ($15).
“While we admire Michelin-starred spots like Brutø and Beckon with multi-course, tasting menus, that’s just not what we’re trying to do here at Hop Alley,” Lee said. “We want guests to choose their own adventure.”
Reservations for the counter are available online Thursday through Saturday nights with two time slot options between 5 and 6 p.m. or 7:30 and 8:45 p.m.
