/ Reviews / Interview
Andrew Gao, Owner of Casa 13 and Noodle Bar
by
on Friday, August 26, 2011 12:00 AM
Why did you open a bar solely for noodles?
A lot of people like noodles. If you ask Chinese people, lots of them will say that noodles are their favorite. Lots of places usually just make one type of noodle, but I want to offer all types so everybody can come. Typical noodle places, after 8pm, usually offer no business. But because we're a bar, you can still eat noodles until late.
What makes Noodle Bar different from anywhere else?
I can open a lot of restaurants and I can make lots of money. I don't want that, it's not my way. I want to create new things for the people. These noodles are made using all natural ingredients and the prices are ones that everyone can handle. Everything we do is for Shanghai, and of course, the food is the best.
How did you come up with the menu?
The ‘new Shanghainese' way is to travel and look at everything around the world, come back and implement these things. I selected ten of the most famous noodles in the world. Not only Chinese, but foreign noodles because we have a lot of foreign people in Shanghai.
Do you have any goals for Noodle Bar?
What is the difference between Shanghai and New York; Shanghai and Paris? If you look on top, to the sky, Shanghai is perfect, nobody can compare. But if you look downstairs, there is big trouble. The food is good, but the kitchens are dirty. I want to help in making Shanghai as clean as those cities. We want to make everything clean. You'll never see a bug in our kitchen. I will give away 100 pairs of ‘environmental chopsticks' to the first customers of Noodle Bar (grand opening was on July 31). They are specially designed by an artist and are easy to carry so you can take them everywhere and use them instead of using disposable chopsticks and damaging the environment. If you bring them here, you will get a discount every time.
When you're not working, what do you like to do in Shanghai?
I lived in America for 32 years and returned to Shanghai three years ago. I'm the developer of Tianzifang so I look at models of stalls and take care of things related to that, as well as running my other restaurant, Casa 13. I also like to spend a lot of time on Weibo reading about what people think.
