An all-you-can-eat fusion hot pot restaurant is set to open in downtown Skokie in January , according to the owner. Patrons will be able to dine in an environment with integrated technology on the dining room tables and a rotary conveyor belt sending fresh vegetables and meat from the kitchen to each table in the dining room.
Traditionally, a hot pot is a shared dish with one big pot filled with broth meant to serve a group, according to The Spot Rotary Hot Pot Owner Donna Nguyen. Her restaurant, slated to open at 7909 Lincoln Avenue, Skokie in January, will serve individual hot pots to each patron, with the broths having a blend of flavors from China, Vietnam, Korea, Japan and Thailand.
Nguyen said the restaurant would serve eight kinds of broth, ranging from kimchi, tomato, and mala (a beefy, spicy broth with Sichuan peppercorns), golden cabbage, tom yum (a chicken broth more commonly used in Thai cuisine); herbal chicken, miso and a vegan-based option mushroom broth. The ingredients served on the conveyor belt are all you can eat, she said, and include beef, shrimp, corn, enoki mushrooms, tofu puff, shiitake mushrooms, ramen and udon, among other options.
While it is Nguyen’s first time as a restaurant owner, her mother, Brenda Phung, was the previous owner of the Vietnamese restaurant Saigon Restaurant in Chicago’s Chinatown in the 1990’s. “We all have a passion for cooking, and we just feel like it’s a good way for people to get together,” Nguyen said. She said that all of the restaurant’s recipes are the family’s and no additional chefs will be brought on to the team to cook, but will hire up to 20 people to work on other tasks.
Nguyen and Phung both work together at a financial consulting agency in Skokie. Nguyen said because they work in the area, they wanted to bring a restaurant with food they like to eat and wanted to extend that invitation to guests that live in the area who might otherwise have to travel to Chinatown for dining.
The restaurant will have 29 tables for 136 guests. The tables have built-in induction heaters to cook the ingredients in each person’s hot pot, according to Nguyen. Nguyen and Phung said the non-spicy broths they would recommend for newcomers include tomato and herbal chicken broths.
The mala broth, Nguyen said, is better suited for people searching for a spicy dish, because the Sichuan peppercorns are a big flavor profile in the dish that can make your tongue go numb. The golden cabbage is also spicy, she said, and the kimchi is not as spicy as the mala or golden cabbage, but is still hot.
The Spot will also serve desserts, boba tea, coconut drinks, cocktails, and in-house-made appetizers such as veggie egg rolls, crab rangoon, and pickled veggies, according to Nguyen. The cocktails will have a range of drinks, including old fashions, margaritas, and a Japanese-inspired drink called Lemon Sour. The restaurant will also have a private party room that can be rented that sit up to 55 people, Phung said, that she envisions can be used for corporate lunches.
The restaurant will also serve hot pot in a to-go form during the lunch hours, according to Nguyen, and will be open daily from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. The Spot will open at the former space of Robert’s Office Space and was able to receive up to $50,000 in grants from the village of Skokie to rehab the building and convert it into a restaurant through the village’s Storefront Enhancement Program. Other restaurants that have opened in the area include, Sweet Reserve Cafe and Bakery and Slyce of NY which were also recipients of the grants and Guatemalan- American breakfast diner Don Julio Cafe.
