Coming Soon: United Noodles in ... WOODBURY?!

The 47-year-old Asian grocery market has big expansion plans and a killer new breakfast pancake.

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I don't even know where to begin. Maybe you know how much I and my nerd teens already love United Noodles, that Jake's 16th birthday started at Zen Box Izakaya and ended with the gaggle roaming United Noodles for unknown-to-us foodstuffs we would then unwrap around my kitchen island, and all share. It's my go-to for when I want to cook pork belly, buy fresh ramen noodles from the cooler, replace my current obsession of black sesame paste, and celebrate my shopping victories with a bowl of hot ramen and a side of SPAM musubi in the UniDeli. Visiting author Andrea Ngyuen recently stopped by the grocery and quipped: "You've got an Asian glossary disguised as a produce section!"

While stalking their recent trip to Taipei and Hong Kong on Instagram, I got a message that they had some news to share. Besides visiting the night markets that start at 9 p.m. and go until 3 a.m. every night, and eating all the things I wanted to eat, the team had a very distinct reason for being there. Co-owner Eric Fung told me, "We were looking at the smartest way to use a small space. The efficiency of retail space in Hong Kong is legendary, mainly because it's $4,500/square foot." 

Why is this so important to him? Because Fung, who bought the 47-year-old Asian grocery from family friend and original owner Ramon Tan in 2014, has big plans. "We're going to open a new location in Woodbury in May. It's going to be smaller and very highly curated, with grocery,  prepared foods, skincare, and gifts. And if that all goes well, we want to expand and open this concept on every Big Ten campus in the country." Just in time for my nerd boys to go to college, perfect.

The new United Noodles will appeal to the next generation of shopper, who wants to get in and out fast, and grab interesting ingredients or prepared foods at a good value. The 3,334 square foot store will be at 7730 Hudson Rd, next to the HOM Furniture. But Woodbury? "We did our research, and Woodbury has the highest income per household of families with at least one member of Asian descent. Call it the 3M affect. And there's really a dearth of options for Asian grocery out there," Fung told me. Ok, I'm just jealous that it's not coming west, clearly. 

"This is going to be an upscale version of the store, we're building all custom cabinetry, with lit shelves and shadow boxes, it's going to be very cool. Peterssen Keller is doing some great work for us. You know, the next generation sees food as a leisure activity, so it should be exciting. And in Asia, those grocery stores are all immaculate and highly meticulously designed, because when you're paying that much for a square foot, it better be nice! But even with all this 'luxury' we're providing, we are keeping our prices the same. We have the buying power that a lot of small shops don't have, so we can keep the prices low." Fung sees this as the next pivot for the brand, "It started out as a noodle maker, then moved to being a wholesaler, and finally a retailer." 

Fung, a former lawyer, started working at United Noodles in 2011 because he was looking for a creative outlet. "It was in the red, and I slept in a room above the store and it just really became my life." But it's not just Fung, he's assembled quite the team that has made this expansion possible. His wife Annie Dingle, a Lt. Cmdr. for the Navy JAG Corps, only quit her day job in 2017 to come on board as the GM. Abby O'Brien is their VP, and greeted every employee who happened by while we were all sitting together. And Adam Wilson is the Executive Chef at UniDeli, and will GM the Woodbury location. It was this wise-crackin' Team Noodle (their term) that went in early March to Taipei, followed by Hong Kong, then back to Taiwan before heading home. "We're a pretty tight bunch, we throw a lot of Happy Gilmore quotes around and pick each others' kids up when we need to. We work seven days a week, so it has to be with people you love," Dingle said. 

While Woodbury will feature prepared foods, and not a restaurant, Wilson is using his trip to Asia to really widen the menu at Unideli and figure out fun stuff for Woodbury. "I've worked in some really great restaurants in town (with the Morrissey group, Sea Change, and with Tim McKee in his Parasole years) but what I really have come to love is street food. People in Taipei eat out almost every meal, because it's easy and affordable," Wilson said, "and there's a world of flavor happening over there. There's a reason the cheapest Michelin starred restaurant is in Hong Kong. I don't want to make food submit to an idea, I just want to use these great ingredients and keep it simple, easy, and affordable."

The team was bowled over with all the experimentation that was happening at the night markets, how it was like an R&D lab for the world, with lots of super weird food combinations coming out of there. Plenty of dishes can't work over here because of regulations and scarcity of certain ingredients, but there's fun stuff a-foot, I promise. Two new UniDeli items that came from the trip are aimed toward breakfast. One is a Scallion Pancake Breakfast Roll, in which the cong you bing (葱油饼, aka scallion pancake) is wrapped around fried egg, ham, and cheese then dipped in oyster sauce. For real, it puts every damn brekki sandwich I've had to shame. They saw suited workers grabbing them at stalls every morning on the way to work. 

Another new dish is the Chicken Congee (粥) which is rice porridge cooked in a pork broth, with preserved “century egg” (皮蛋, pidan), with green onions, ginger and preserved veg. I happen to be mildly obsessed with congee anyway, but this beautiful and hearty porridge will haunt my Sunday mornings. Both dishes are available on Sat-Sun from 9-11 a.m., in an effort to get people in the store when it's a bit quieter and not elbow to elbow. As for Woodbury, they're playing around with things, thinking about a possible fried chicken situation. "I don't want to use the dreaded F word (fusion), but over in Asia they are so totally taken with Southern cooking," said Fung, "and you can find Chinese sausages paired with collared greens, it's so cool. We want to embody that global embrace of food."

I'm here for the congee, and I'm here for the global expansion. Look for Woodbury to open near the end of May. 

Mpls.St.Paul Daily Edit

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