ShopHouse Southeast Asian Kitchen
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

ShopHouse Southeast Asian Kitchen, or simply ShopHouse, was an American
restaurant chain A chain store or retail chain is a retail outlet in which several locations share a brand, central management and standardized business practices. They have come to dominate the retail and dining markets and many service categories, in many pa ...
specializing in
Southeast Asian cuisine This is a list of Asian cuisines, by region. A cuisine is a characteristic style of cooking practices and traditions, usually associated with a specific culture or region. Asia, being the largest, most populous and culturally diverse continent, ...
. Its name derived from the shophouse, a common building type in urban Southeast Asia. The first ShopHouse opened in September 2011 in
Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
, there were a total of fourteen ShopHouse locations, in
California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
,
Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...
,
Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...
, and
Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
ShopHouse was owned and operated by
Chipotle Mexican Grill Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (, ), often known simply as Chipotle, is an American chain of fast casual restaurants specializing in bowls, tacos and Mission burritos made to order in front of the customer. Chipotle operates restaurants in the Uni ...
, and used a similar serving format. Like Chipotle, ShopHouse restaurants were company-owned, rather than franchised. Its competitors included
Panda Express Panda Express is an American fast food restaurant chain that serves American Chinese cuisine. With over 2,200 locations, it is the largest Asian-segment restaurant chain in the United States, where it was founded, and is mainly located in North ...
,
P. F. Chang's P. F. Chang's China Bistro is an American-based, casual dining restaurant chain founded in 1993 by Paul Fleming and Philip Chiang that serves Asian fusion cuisine. Centerbridge Partners owned and operated Chang's until acquired by the private e ...
,
Pick Up Stix Pick Up Stix is an American fast-casual restaurant chain based in Laguna Hills, California, that serves fresh Asian cuisine (or Chinese-American cuisine as well) through corporate-owned restaurants and franchises in Southern California. The comp ...
, and to a small extent
Noodles & Company Noodles & Company is an American fast-casual restaurant that offers international and American noodle dishes in addition to soups and salads. Noodles & Company was founded in 1995 by Aaron Kennedy and is headquartered in Broomfield, Colorado. ...
. On October 25, 2016, founder, Steve Ells, said during an earnings call that the company "decided not to invest further in growing the ShopHouse brand." All ShopHouse locations were closed on March 17, 2017. After the restaurants closed, the leases for each restaurant were purchased by Gosh Enterprises and converted into new locations for Bibibop Asian Grill.


Concept development

The ShopHouse concept was primarily developed by Chipotle's director of concept development Tim Wildin, who was born in Bangkok and spent all of his childhood summers there. Wildin had been working in the marketing department at Chipotle and realized that if he could follow Chipotle’s business model and combine it with his knowledge of traditional Southeast Asian cuisine, he could bring the taste of his homeland to the American masses. Culinary manager Nate Appleman was responsible for developing some recipes and the procedures to produce the final product. Wildin was responsible with the look of the facilities, the locations of the restaurants, and marketing.


History

The first ShopHouse opened on
Connecticut Avenue Connecticut Avenue is a major thoroughfare in the Northwest quadrant of Washington, D.C., and suburban Montgomery County, Maryland. It is one of the diagonal avenues radiating from the White House, and the segment south of Florida Avenue was on ...
, in the
Dupont Circle Dupont Circle (or DuPont Circle) is a traffic circle, park, neighborhood and historic district in Northwest Washington, D.C. The Dupont Circle neighborhood is bounded approximately by 16th Street NW to the east, 22nd Street NW t ...
neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Opened on September 15, 2011, the location was intended to test consumer response before further expansion. After almost two years, the second ShopHouse, the first on the West Coast, opened in Hollywood on June 17, 2013. In the last half of 2013, four new locations were quickly opened, two on each coast. A second D.C. location in Georgetown was opened in August. In October, a second
Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
-area location was opened in
Santa Monica Santa Monica (; Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 U.S. Census population was 93,076. Santa Monica is a popular resort town, owing to i ...
and also a location in Maryland opened in Bethesda on the other side of the country. At the end of 2013, a location in
Westwood, Los Angeles Westwood is a commercial and residential neighborhood in the northern central portion of the Westside region of Los Angeles, California. It is the home of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Bordering the campus on the south ...
was opened in December. Three D.C.-area locations were opened in 2014; in D.C. Chinatown in May; at
The Mall in Columbia The Mall in Columbia, also known as the Columbia Mall, is the central shopping mall for the planned community of Columbia, Maryland, United States. It has over 200 specialty stores and the anchor stores are AMC Theatres, Lidl, Main Event Enter ...
in the D.C. suburb of
Columbia, Maryland Columbia is a census-designated place in Howard County, Maryland. It is one of the principal communities of the Baltimore–Washington metropolitan area. It is a planned community consisting of 10 self-contained villages. Columbia began with ...
, as part of that mall's expansion; and at
Union Station A union station (also known as a union terminal, a joint station in Europe, and a joint-use station in Japan) is a railway station at which the tracks and facilities are shared by two or more separate railway companies, allowing passengers to ...
in D.C. in November. After quite a bit of activity in 2014, a D.C.-area location in
North Bethesda North Bethesda is an unincorporated, census-designated place in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, located just north-west of the U.S. capital of Washington, D.C. It had a population of 50,094 as of the 2020 census. Among its neighbor ...
was opened in Maryland in March 2015 to make a total of 10 ShopHouse locations in the nation by the end of March 2015. The following year, a fourth location in Maryland was opened in Silver Spring in March 2016. In 2014,
The Motley Fool The Motley Fool is a private financial and investing advice company based in Alexandria, Virginia. It was founded in July 1993 by co-chairmen and brothers David Gardner and Tom Gardner, and Erik Rydholm, who has since left the company. The compa ...
noted that Chipotle was expanding the ShopHouse concept rather slowly when compared with the expansion of
Noodles & Company Noodles & Company is an American fast-casual restaurant that offers international and American noodle dishes in addition to soups and salads. Noodles & Company was founded in 1995 by Aaron Kennedy and is headquartered in Broomfield, Colorado. ...
during the same time period. A writer for MarketWatch commented in 2015 that some of the procedures that Chipotle had developed for providing affordable quality burritos quickly "may not work with other cuisines". , there had been on the average three new ShopHouses opened each year while there had been 150 new Chipotles opened annually during the same time period, or nearly three opens per week. ShopHouse defended their decision of having a relatively slow roll out by responding to their critics that they are still trying to shape the brand by getting everything done right before they duplicate the procedures and replicate it in a new location. In this way, they would like to provide great products in an efficient and cost effective manner that would entice customers to return frequently. It was announced in May 2015 that the first location in the Midwest was planned to be opened in the
Chicago Loop The Loop, one of Chicago's 77 designated community areas, is the central business district of the city and is the main section of Downtown Chicago. Home to Chicago's commercial core, it is the second largest commercial business district in Nort ...
during Fall 2015. A further announcement was later made in October stating that a location in
Schaumburg, Illinois Schaumburg ( ) is a village mostly in Cook County and partly in DuPage County in northeastern Illinois, United States. Per the 2020 Census, the population was 78,723. Schaumburg is around northwest of the Chicago Loop and northwest of O'Hare ...
, is planned to be open in November with another location is planned to be open in downtown Chicago in December. Both Illinois locations opened on schedule with great reviews along with a few minor complaints. After a two years hiatus on the West Coast, a fourth Los Angeles area location was opened in July 2015 in El Segundo followed by a fifth L.A. location, the 15th in the nation, in July 2016 in
West Hollywood West Hollywood is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Incorporated in 1984, it is home to the Sunset Strip. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, its population was 35,757. It is considered one of the most prominent gay villages ...
. The West Hollywood location was the first case in which the restaurant shared a common wall, parking lot and outdoor patio with a Chipotle restaurant. On October 25, 2016, founder, Steve Ells, said during an earnings call that the company "decided not to invest further in growing the ShopHouse brand." All ShopHouse locations were scheduled to close on March 17, 2017.


Menu

ShopHouse food was mostly inspired by
Malaysian Malaysian may refer to: * Something from or related to Malaysia, a country in Southeast Asia * Malaysian Malay, a dialect of Malay language spoken mainly in Malaysia * Malaysian people, people who are identified with the country of Malaysia regard ...
, Thai, and
Vietnamese cuisine Vietnamese cuisine encompasses the foods and beverages of Vietnam. Meals feature a combination of five fundamental tastes ( vi, ngũ vị, links=no, label=none): sweet, salty, bitter, sour, and spicy. The distinctive nature of each dish refle ...
. Customers start with a base of chilled
rice noodles Rice noodles, or simply rice noodle, are noodles made with rice flour and water as the principal ingredients. Sometimes ingredients such as tapioca or corn starch are added in order to improve the transparency or increase the gelatinous and c ...
,
jasmine rice Jasmine rice ( th, ข้าวหอมมะลิ; ; ) is a long-grain variety of fragrant rice (also known as aromatic rice). Its fragrance, reminiscent of ''pandan'' (''Pandanus amaryllifolius'') and popcorn, results from the rice plant's n ...
,
brown rice Brown rice is a whole grain rice with the inedible outer hull removed. This kind of rice sheds its outer hull or husk but the bran and germ layer remain on, constituting the brown or tan colour of rice. White rice is the same grain without the h ...
, or
salad A salad is a dish consisting of mixed, mostly natural ingredients with at least one raw ingredient. They are typically served at room temperature or chilled, though some can be served warm. Condiments and salad dressings, which exist in a va ...
and choose meat (or
tofu Tofu (), also known as bean curd in English, is a food prepared by coagulating soy milk and then pressing the resulting curds into solid white blocks of varying softness; it can be ''silken'', ''soft'', ''firm'', ''extra firm'' or ''super f ...
), a vegetable, a sauce, a garnish, and a topping. The restaurant provided several suggested combinations. Some ShopHouse locations served Southeast Asian
beer Beer is one of the oldest and the most widely consumed type of alcoholic drink in the world, and the third most popular drink overall after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of starches, mainly derived from ce ...
, such as
Beerlao Beerlao (Lao language: ເບຍລາວ) is the generic name of a range of beers produced by the Lao Brewery Company (LBC) of Vientiane, Laos. History The beer is based on locally grown jasmine rice; the malt used is imported from Fran ...
, Chang, and
Singha Singha ( th, สิงห์; RTGS: ''Sing'') is a pale lager beer manufactured in Thailand by the Singha Corporation Co. Ltd., a subsidiary of its parent company, Boon Rawd Brewery. Singha was first brewed in 1933, and in 1939 officially end ...
. Initially, the restaurant served
bánh mì In Vietnamese cuisine, or banh mi (, ; , "bread") is a short baguette with thin, crisp crust and soft, airy texture. It is often split lengthwise and filled with savory ingredients like a submarine sandwich and served as a meal, called ''bá ...
in addition to bowls, but the sandwiches were quickly dropped a few months later after receiving mostly negative reviews on the quality of bread that was being used and ShopHouse's inability to find a dependable supplier of decent bread. Unlike Chipotle, ShopHouse varied the ingredients available to their customers by adding seasonable vegetables to their menu that depended on local availability, such as kale, summer squash, butternut squash, parsnips, and collard greens. In 2014, ShopHouse began to offer their first dessert, a coconut rice and mango parfait. In 2016, the company began testing fried
spring rolls Spring rolls are rolled appetizers or dim sum commonly found in Chinese and other Southeast Asian cuisines. The kind of wrapper, fillings, and cooking technique used, as well as the name, vary considerably within this large area, depending o ...
at their West Hollywood location.


Reception

Tom Sietsema of ''The Washington Post'' called ShopHouse "one of the best fast food ideas in years." The reviewer for Midtown Lunch said the food was not as sweet as overly sweet foods found in the heavily Americanized Asian chain restaurants, but closer to the authentic cuisines. The reviewer also said that the food is spicier than what one would expect from a chain, great for people who enjoy spicier foods (and a wall full of additional hot sauces for person who don't think the food is spicy enough) but not so great for people who want relatively bland foods. The downside to the concept is that the flavors could easily get "muddled" by selecting the wrong combinations of components. A food writer for ''
Forbes Magazine ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also rep ...
'' who was born in Malaysia and specializes in writing about Asian cuisine, gave the chain a mixed review. Although she thought the individual components had great flavor, she believed that it is a big mistake for ShopHouse to allow the individual components to be mixed together in a single bowl and suggests that the food would taste better if components were kept separate, like in a
bento A is the Japanese iteration of a single-portion take-out or home-packed meal, often for lunch. Outside Japan, it is common in other East and Southeast Asian culinary styles, especially within Chinese, Korean, Singaporean cuisines and more, ...
. She wrote that "all those carefully crafted flavors were at the end muted and lost" and believed that the cause of the taste confusion is caused by "a lack of respect for national cuisines or even particular genres within national cuisines."


See also

*
List of defunct restaurants of the United States Below is a list of defunct restaurants of the United States. Defunct restaurants in the United States * Arthur Treacher's fish and chips, one location remains * Aunt Jemima's Kitchen * Big Daddy's Restaurants * Bikinis Sports Bar & Grill * B ...
*
List of Thai restaurants This is a list of notable Thai restaurants, which specialize in Thai cuisine and dishes: * Camile – an Irish restaurant chain that serves Thai cuisine * Eem – Thai barbecue restaurant and cocktail bar in Portland, Oregon * E-san Thai Cui ...
* List of Vietnamese restaurants


References


External links

* {{Fast-food chains of the United States 2011 establishments in Washington, D.C. 2017 disestablishments in Washington, D.C. Dupont Circle Defunct fast-food chains in the United States Defunct restaurant chains in the United States Thai restaurants Vietnamese restaurants in the United States Restaurants established in 2011 Restaurants disestablished in 2017 Chipotle Mexican Grill