The Ginger Pig is going home.
Hockey player-turned-lawyer-turned-chef Natascha Hess opened The Ginger Pig Asian street food truck in 2016 at Boulder’s Rayback Collective food truck park. Since, the Pig has made it onto just about every local best-of list, scored a 3-star restaurant review in these pages, operated a now-closed stall in Boulder’s Rosetta food hall and opened a brick-and-mortar spot in Denver’s Berkeley neighborhood in the middle of a global pandemic.
And as of this fall, the Pig will return to Boulder, opening a takeout spot on The Hill in the former La Choza space.
“It is insane we’re going back to Boulder,” Hess said. “If you talked to me two months ago, I would have been too burned out to do that. This is an exciting way to expand our business and bring our food back to Boulder. We spent so much time there, and a lot of people will be excited that we’re coming back and can get us on DoorDash and Grubhub.”
Hess came about the spot when she was looking for a Boulder home for the food truck, which has spent the better part of the past couple years parked in front of The Ginger Pig’s Denver restaurant. She considered returning to Rayback, but when she found the takeout spot on The Hill– and learned that she can add rooftop seating in the future and a still hush-hush new ghost kitchen concept — the choice was clear. Especially since more than half of her business is in the form of takeout and delivery these days, the spot just made sense.
Besides the red curry rice balls, tongue-numbing Chinese fried chicken, and Kung Pao shrimp noodles that Ginger Pig fans already love, Hess said the Boulder spot will offer menu items unique to that location, like a vegan take on her popular Korean cornflake dog.
If you want to watch Hess in action outside of the restaurants, she’ll be appearing on an episode of the Food Network’s “Beat Bobby Flay” on August 11.
Look for The Ginger Pig Boulder to open in October.
