Eatery owner: Don’t call it Asian fusion, it’s chicken and Chinese

First things first. Restaurant owner and chef Natalie Young wants people to stop describing the cuisine of her new restaurant called Chow as Asian fusion.

It’s Southern-fried chicken. And it’s Chinese food. That’s it. No crossover.

None of this “fusion” stuff.

“I’m a niche filler, man,” Young said.

The woman who opened the popular restaurant called Eat on Carson Avenue in downtown Las Vegas in 2012 with the help of Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh is opening Chow in September in the heart of Hsiehville. It’s at 1020 E. Fremont, next door to the Writer’s Block book shop and across the street from the air stream park and 11th Street Records.

Downtown Project, Hsieh’s $350 million redevelopment initiative, is supplying the financial muscle to launch Young’s Chow.

After pulling up in her black Porsche Boxster early Friday afternoon, Young walked into the 2,200-square-foot space under construction and was excited to describe some of its features. Workers have been hammering away at the former boxing gym for the past six weeks.

“I’m going to play Led Zeppelin and ask me why,” Young said.

“Because I can.”

More quirkiness for the 67-seat restaurant: There will be a secret knock-on-the-side-door code for Chow insiders to enter; exterior building shelves will be built to allow hungry drunks to chow down outside; and a late-night, to-go window will be open for walk-up customers when a light shines green outside.

Her partners have given her free creative rein to develop Chow. Besides Hsieh, her partners include Hsieh friend Don Welch, Zappos executive Fred Mossler, attorney Todd Kessler and downtown deal maker Andrew Donner.

“Eat was my first-born. Tony said and the guys said, ‘Have fun,’ ” Young said.

Young, who worked at the Hard Rock Hotel and Paris Las Vegas and has been cooking for a quarter-century, also wants to show people that she’s not a one-trick pony with Eat.

“Everybody said Eat was an anomaly. I want to see if I have the golden touch,” Young said.

Young, a downtown Las Vegas resident who grew up in Aurora, Colo., outside of Denver, said she was inspired to launch Chow because she believes there’s no good Chinese food restaurant in downtown.

As a kid, she used to eat white bread and chicken wings — so she knows fried chicken. As for the Chinese food, Young has hired chef Lanny Chin from Lucky Foo’s to oversee the dumplings, pot stickers, fried rice and chow mein.

Expect to also see other dishes such as “Kinda riblets” and “Chi-talian noodles.”

Young expects to hire 26 cooks and servers and will enlist mural artist Angelina Christina to paint two large chickens — one black, one white — on an exterior wall.

Contact reporter Alan Snel at asnel@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5273. Find him on Twitter: @BicycleManSnel