Wings in one place and sushi in another. Two different restaurant menus from owners with the same hopes for connecting with customers and the community in Central Park, adding to the dining spots already in the Eastbridge Town Center.

Fire on the Mountain opens this month in the former Tag Burger space. The owners have been busy getting the place ready for “peace and grease,” the slogan of their already popular restaurants in Washington Park and West Highlands.

“It’s like those old Denver neighborhoods. This is the newer version of those neighborhoods,” co-owner Andrea West said about Central Park.

West and business partner Craig “Cheech” Oberlink took over the burger space and much of the equipment. West said the restaurant is “turnkey,” so it won’t take much work to change it into what they want their restaurant to be: a “community-driven and a locally focused place.” They’ll add artwork, but there’s already a lot of infrastructure in place, West said.

On the day Front Porch visited in mid-August, the executive team was on site doing the work.

Oberlink said it didn’t look like a restaurant yet, but it did have “restaurant vibes.”

The team has been together for 13 years with long-term employees, and some who live closer will move to the Central Park location.

“It’s a cool opportunity to give a bunch of our people who’ve worked for us for a long time new opportunities. It doesn’t come up very often. It’s been seven years since we opened another restaurant,” West explained.

She said expanding Fire on the Mountain into Central Park makes sense because people here are “proud of where they live.” She added, she loves the greenbelts, trails, and community spirit of the area.

The restaurant’s focus is on chicken wings, with 15 sauces made in house every day. “It’s all about the sauce,” West said. They also serve sandwiches, salads, appetizers, and desserts, along with craft beers.

The eatery’s name refers to a song by the Grateful Dead, so there’s a little “hippie flair,” West said. But you’ll also find people watching a game, she said, and it’s a place where families can bring kids and let them be kids.

The restaurant will be open 11am to 10pm on weeknights and 11am to 11pm on weekends.

Across the plaza in the former Cholon space, Robert and Charlene Thai have opened their third area restaurant, Hida Japanese Skillet & Grill, named for the Hida region of Japan.

The Thais own Misaki and Lemon Grass in Stanley Marketplace, and Robert said he’s always listening and learning about what customers want. For three or four years, he said, he kept hearing from younger people who would tell him, “I’m a vegetarian,” or “I’m a vegan. Would you do something like that differently?”

He added a page of new options at Misaki for those customers, then he saw the Cholon space open up. So he decided to start Hida, where the menu is packed with vegan and vegetarian options, “rather than just one page.”

For the months before opening, Robert said he studied, and he ate a lot of vegetables.

“I went through a lot of vegan and vegetarian materials,” he said, to make the food look and taste the best.

There’s no raw fish on the Hida menu; all of that is available at Misaki. And Robert knows not everyone who visits the new place is vegetarian, so there’s also yakisoba, pork loin curry, and sizzling steak. He also showed off pressed sushi, which is cooked.

Hida is currently open for lunch and dinner.

Front Porch photos by Christie Gosch