A Chinese restaurant that opened more than 40 years ago closed unexpectedly and unceremoniously earlier this year following a buyout and plans to turn it into a franchise.
Imperial Chinese Seafood Restaurant and Lounge, first opened by Johnny and Anne Hsu, had occupied a building on 431 S. Broadway since 1995. Hsu sold the building to Dan Dietrich, a health-care entrepreneur who last year expressed interest in expanding the concept across the Denver area and even to Las Vegas.
But those plans never came to fruition. Instead, a sign was recently taped to the restaurant’s front door. “After many years at Imperial Chinese, we have made the difficult decision to close our doors,” it read. “Due to rising operating costs and ongoing economic challenges, this was not an easy decision.”
Dietrich did not return a call seeking comment.
Imperial Chinese’s longevity on Broadway led The Denver Post to feature the restaurant in 2011 for a report on restaurants with more than 25 years in operation. “I saw that the economy was bad,” Johnny Hsu, originally from Hong Kong, was quoted as saying at the time about the economy in 1985. “But people still have to eat, and they want the best.”
Diners flocked to Imperial over the decades, leading the Post’s Alan Katz to say in 1990 that, “The Imperial has matured into a first-class restaurant that would rate highly in any American city. Rarely will you find a Chinese restaurant that rivals Imperial’s well-trained staff, exquisite Chinese food and classy, comfortable dining room … This was one of those meals I wish everyone I love could experience.”
In 2010, the Hsus celebrated Imperial’s 25th anniversary with a dinner at their Broadway restaurant. “When we opened up, we were the only ones who served real Chinese food,” Johnny Hsu was quoted as saying in a piece by Denver Post columnist Penny Parker. “We had the whole fish with the eyes popping out. We really shocked the public.”
After buying the restaurant from Hsu, Dietrich added several properties that had last been used by Sushi-Rama, a shuttered string of restaurants from Denver chef Jeff Osaka. The landlord for one of the properties sued Dietrich in February over what they said was more than $100,000 in unpaid rent. The case was filed in Arapahoe County District Court and is ongoing.
The future of the other properties Dietrich had acquired for the Chinese franchise, which he dubbed Imperial Go, is unclear. The Imperial Go website lists only a Las Vegas location, which is temporarily closed according to information on Google.
