Jimmy Chew Shuttered
Montrose late night spot shutters, but could reopen with the right investor
A Montrose late-night spot has closed, but its owner hopes the restaurant will reopen soon.
Jimmy Chew Asian Kitchen has been closed for about two weeks, owner Irwin Palchick announced Saturday morning on The Cleverley Show, but the pan-Asian restaurant that opened last September isn’t gone for good.
“We just had some problems in the kitchen with some employees that we needed to change, without getting too in-depth,” Palchick explained on the weekly radio show (hear the complete interview here).
The owner told host Cleverley Stone that he’s identified an unnamed new chef — Stone described him as “kind of a name in town” — who’s ready to step in and and install a new menu. To facilitate the necessary changes, Palchick told Stone that he’s seeking an investor to inject some cash into the business. While he declined to specify an exact dollar amount over the air, he agreed with Stone’s description that the investment he's seeking is “crazy affordable.”
“You can be an active partner. You can buy the entire operation, but it’s easier to get in as just an active partner or an inactive partner, however you wish to invest your funds,” Palchick said. “I think it is affordable based on what we have invested in the place. Very affordable. Probably what most people buy a CD with.”
Despite some mixed reviews — an early positive assessment from My Table and a solid three-and-a-half stars on Yelp balanced with a sharply negative article in Houstonia in May — Palchick views the restaurant’s prospects optimistically. He noted that Jimmy Chew fills over 1,000 delivery orders monthly via UberEATS and said the new chef has a plan to improve the kitchen.
“He’s very excited . . . This new gentleman has incredible training in Asian food, and he’s got some great ideas to change the menu,” Palchick said. We’re ready to go. We could open in five (days) if we had a new investor, and it doesn’t have to be a great deal of money. We just need some help to back up the chef and the kitchen change.”
If Palchick’s quest to find a new investor is successful, perhaps Jimmy Chew could replace Hollywood Vietnamese as the neighborhood's go-to spot for late night Asian cuisine. After all, few dishes taste better at the end of a long night than General Tso’s chicken and crispy spring rolls.
