You’ve heard of big storefronts swallowing up little ones, but Corner 17 in the Delmar Loop is switching things around. Owner Ivan Wei has announced that he is expanding his popular Asian noodle concept into the space next door, formerly occupied by Qdoba.
Corner 17, noted for its windowed station in back where noodles are hand-made to order, closed June 1 to begin the renovations, which will be twofold. The expansion will add 100 seats, and a new express service cafe section will serve prepared menu items for diners on the go. “It’s just easier for Wash. U students and people working around there to get a quick and different variety of lunch,” Wei said.
The menus on both sides of the restaurant will differ, too, serving alternate styles of Chinese cuisine. Wei, who also operates Joy Luck Buffet in Maplewood, said this bifurcated approach allows the kitchen to offer customers a more versatile experience.
“(The express cafe side) serves American-style Chinese, (while) the other side serves traditional Chinese, which includes bubble tea, handmade noodles, dumplings,” Wei said. “We have so many Asian students from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan. … We want to share a traditional Chinese food idea to Western customers, too.”
Helen Lee, partner at design firm Tao & Lee, said the updated design is shooting for “two different atmospheres” for the respective sections of the restaurant. The express service cafe will be cheerier and naturally lit, while the dining room will offer a more solemn mood for leisurely paced, traditional dining.
Wei said the updated space will reopen in late August or early September. “The space (right now) is too small,” he said. “We just want to make it more of a comfortable dining area for people to enjoy traditional food.”
Corner 17 isn’t the first restaurant concept to give itself some extra elbow room on the Loop. In January, David Choi’s tiny Seoul Taco opened in the former Ginger Bistro space, splitting down the middle with an expanded Seoul Taco on one side and adding Seoul Q, a dine-in Korean barbecue concept and bar, on the other.
-photo by Greg Rannells
This article appears in June 2015.