This April 1, FunJu Noodle Bar, a new restaurant on 20 Ives Road, will open its doors for the very first time. Mr. Tommy Zhou, the owner and manager of the restaurant, wanted to bring his passion for food to the Wallingford community. “The part of the opening which I am most excited about is having the customers taste recipes that I have personally developed from scratch,” he remarked. Though the opening of the restaurant certainly is exciting, it is also an enormous responsibility throughout all stages of its development.
FunJu Noodle Bar o!ers ramen, pho, and other Asian cuisine.
The first step taken toward bringing Mr. Zhou’s ideas to fruition was construction. Mr. Zhou wanted to create a layout with a bar adjacent to a section of arrayed tables for casual eating. Mr. Zhou had many other responsibilities aside from ensuring the renovation process accurately illustrated his design. “In the second step, I had to develop recipes. Then, I had to enlarge the menu by adding a variety of recipes so the customers would have many choices,” he explained. Mr. Zhou has a lot of passion for the FunJu Noodle Bar menu because the recipes are homemade. After he had collected enough recipes, Mr. Zhou began the hiring process. Mr. Zhou looks for employees who he thinks will bring life to the restaurant by showing a true passion for the food service.
While developing the restaurant, one of Mr. Zhou’s main goals was to figure out how he could best contribute to the Wallingford community. One of his ideas was to serve customers with healthy food. “Since we cooked all the dishes and soups from scratch without any artificial flavoring, I think we will be contributing to the community by promoting natural and healthy cooking,” stated Mr. Zhou. Some of the food FunJu Noodle Bar will be serving includes Japanese ramen, Vietnamese pho, and an assortment of snacks, which will be served as appetizers.
Though the opening of the restaurant has almost arrived, there are still a few last things to fit into place. Because of the profound amount of work that has already gone into creating this restaurant, Mr. Zhou wants to hire the right employees for the job. When these employees arrive, the next vital step will be to instruct them the proper ways in which to cook, serve, clean, and bring their personalities to the restaurant in order to build a friendly environment. “Eventually the process will become easier. But, when new employees come in, we will have to train and teach them. As they spend more and more time there, they will eventually get used to the flow of everything,” Mr. Zhou concluded.
Mr. Zhou is very excited to finally bring his passionate contribution to the community. Join the grand opening on April 1 at FunJu Noodle Bar.
