KALAMAZOO COUNTY, MI — Some may have noticed workers busily erecting what appears to be a new store behind Texas Corners Pharmacy, just southeast of West Q Avenue and South Eighth Street.
If you're dying to know what that is, the clue is in the word “craving.”
Cravings Corners, an expansion of the family-owned Cravings Deli in Portage, is expected to open later this year at 8107 Vineyard Parkway, owners Xin Wang and Anson Liu told the Kalamazoo Gazette/MLive.
Related: Local food: Cravings Deli brings Asian cuisine to Kalamazoo
Due to a lack of availability of Asian foods like kimchi and roast duck, the couple decided to bring an Asian-style grocery store to Kalamazoo in 2008, opening Pacific Rim Foods at Oakwood Plaza.
The store outgrew its small 3,500-square-foot space, so in 2018 it moved to its current 11,000-square-foot location at 229 W. Kilgore Road in Portage.
Born into a family of chefs and restaurateurs, Wang had always wanted to open his own restaurant.
The new space gave her and her husband exactly what they needed to expand their storefront and open a restaurant in its location.
Shortly after opening their Pacific Rim/Cravings location, they moved to Texas Township to raise their children, and when opportunity arose, they purchased the land behind Texas Corners Pharmacy in 2019.
“We said, let's just put this thing in our back pocket and see where it takes us,” Liu said. “Then the pandemic happened. It gave us time to think about what we wanted to do.”
What they're doing is building a 3,000-square-foot restaurant just around the corner from their home.
With the ability to build a kitchen to their specifications and design the entire space, Wang said they plan to offer a menu that will be about 70% similar to what Cravings offers, with 30% made up of new dishes.
“The new menu is still a secret, but there will be more of an emphasis on presentation,” Wang said. “We want to take Asian cuisine to the next level. This (current) location only offers 10% of the original extensive menu. This location will allow us to bring back other dishes.”
Though both Wang and Liu were born in China, their cooking spans all types of Asian cuisine, from Thai to Chinese to Korean to Japanese.
“The name Cravings comes from what we crave,” Liu said, “so when you come here, you're not specifically looking for Japanese food or Chinese food or Thai food. Just like in our grocery store, you can come here and use our ingredients to make a Thai dish or a Korean dish.”
Like the current Cravings Deli, the new space will offer both takeout and dine-in, but Wang says he hopes the enhanced presentation will encourage people to spend more time there.
“We want people to come to the restaurant, relax and be amazed by the delicious food and the quality of the food,” she said.
Wang said the main reason they want to open another restaurant is because they live there and thought it would be convenient to have a restaurant nearby. They don't have plans to open a second grocery store at this time because they both feel their current location is very central to the entire Kalamazoo County community.
“Our mindset has always been, what value can we bring to the community,” Liu said. “We're both foodies at heart, ever since we met in our 20s. We love to cook, we love to travel, and when we go somewhere, we think, 'Can we bring that to Kalamazoo?'”
Both grocery stores and Cravings were built as a means of convenience, not simply to fill a void.
“Food has always been my passion,” Wang said. “Ever since I was little, my dad would try new foods for me and ask, 'What does it taste like?' I'd say I need a little bit of this, I need a little bit more of that.”
“When we first moved here, there was nowhere to get authentic food other than Hunan Gardens and a few other restaurants. We had to drive to Chicago or Detroit, so we came up with the idea. We wanted authentic food for ourselves and to show American culinary culture.”
When the new restaurant opens, the current Cravings staff will be split between the two locations, so Liu and Wang plan to recruit staff for both locations immediately.
For more information, visit pacificrimfoods.com/cravings-deli.
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