Jun, the North Loop sister to suburban Roseville’s Szechuan, has opened in Minneapolis at as one of the only truly authentic Sichuan style Chinese restaurants in the area. Now open for dinner service in the remodeled former Rojo space at 730 North Washington Avenue by chef and owner, Jessie Wong and her son, Jack. Jun also serves a full bar menu with fetching Asian-influenced cocktails and gorgeous mocktails. The space is beautifully modern, the natural lighting is Instagram perfect, and the food is kicky and vibrant. Here are a few things to know about Jun North Loop.
You say Sichuan, I say Szechuan
Both are really just different spellings of a a style of cuisine from Sichuan province in southwestern China. The Szechuan style of cooking, and in particular its use of the Sichuan pepper, is bold and fiery, pungent and garlicky.
The Sichuan pepper renders such a powerful punch, it was sometimes used in traditional Chinese medicine as a numbing elixir. Another bit of name play is the restaurant itself, Jun is also Jessie’s Chinese Name.
No Shortcuts
Inside the kitchen, dishes are made from scratch and that includes making the noodles and dumplings by hand. It’s not happening quite yet, but be on the lookout for hand stretched noodles to soon be served on the menu.
Mom and Son Team
Jessie Wang and her young son Jack immigrated to Minnesota from China and began helping out in the small take-out eatery run by Jack’s grandparents in St. Louis Park. Jessie helped in the front of the house while her son washed dishes and did whatever was needed in the kitchen. It only seemed natural, then, for the duo to open their own spot, Szechuan in Roseville, in 2009. At their second restaurant Jun, Jack is the noodle man of the operation while Jessie runs the kitchen.
Urban Remodel
After the colossal failure of Shag Sushi (and subsequently, Rojo) at this same address, the Wangs took over and brought on Lisa Munson from Smart Associates. Munson washed the room with dark hues peppered with bright punches of limy green.
She also incorporated the Jun logo into the design with a looming metal screen separating the bar from the dining room and bustling open kitchen. The Instagram-mandated floor to ceiling windows, flanked by obligatory exposed brick walls, offer views of Washington Avenue. The design seems eager to please iPhone yielding millennials.
Lunch, Coming Soonish
While the restaurant is currently serving dinner (and fab cocktails) from 4:00 to 11:00 p.m., lunch service, including the same glorious hand-pulled noodle dishes from the dinner menu, will start up in later in winter. “Right now we have the staff for dinner service,” Jack Wang explained. “We want to make sure everything is perfect, then we’ll move on to lunch.”
“We’ve been looking for a place for a long time, three years,” Wang explained. “We came into this neighborhood and realized that people here like to eat good food, but there was nothing like this in the area. Now we have to live up to this neighborhood with the design, cocktails, menu, everything.” So far, so good.