Over a decade ago, former Westword food editor Mark Antonation began his food-writing career by eating his way up Federal Boulevard. Now, we’re turning our attention to another vibrant culinary corridor.
The four-plus-mile stretch of Havana Street between Dartmouth and Sixth Avenue in Aurora is home to the most diverse array of international cuisine available in the metro area. From restaurants and markets to take-and-go shops and stands, food lovers of nearly any ethnicity or interest can find a place that will remind them of home or open new culinary doors. In Eat Up Havana, Antony Bruno will visit them all, one by one, week by week.
Previous stops:
Next up: Nana’s Dim Sum & Dumplings
It’s hard to believe that just two years ago, the Nana’s Dim Sum & Dumplings empire didn’t even exist. The local business opened its first location in LoHi in late 2023 and is now up to four, after adding a foothold along Aurora’s highly diverse stretch of Havana Street restaurants.
Like many of Havana Street’s eateries, Nana’s can be easy to miss, hidden amid the crush of chain retail stores, banks and national chain restaurants that make up the Village on the Park strip mall. But once inside, you’re quickly transported into a very specific vision that the ownership team behind the concept had when not only creating the menu, but the name itself.
Diners are immediately greeted by the titular Nana featured on the restaurant’s logo, who has a welcoming smile on her face and is holding a round bamboo steamer. She appears even more prominently along the restaurant’s back wall mural, with her kindly, wrinkled face painted floor to ceiling by local artist Casey Kawaguchi.
According to Esther Kang, Nana’s director of marketing, Nana is always watching. “She’s always watching over all of us. So we have to act the right way and do our best,” adds Kang. “That’s the kind of family hospitality and culture we aim to bring. It’s just always giving a little extra and being very intentional with everything we do.”
Key among those little extras is a window into the kitchen, right at the entrance, where four dim sum chefs are filling and folding dumplings and wontons for all to see. It just screams “fresh” and “made here.”
Soon the restaurant will begin offering how-to dumpling-making classes, where you can reserve a time to stand among these ladies, learning how to make your own dumplings — all during a typical service in order to get the full experience.
Rounding out the decor are a tasteful water feature, rattan pendant lights, and wall decorations reminiscent of items you might find in an old Chinese village. It’s all very modern yet rooted in tradition, careful to walk the line between comfortable and not too fancy.
That same philosophy extends to the food. For starters, know that this is not your typical cart-driven dim sum restaurant. Everything at Nana’s is ordered through your server.
All of the dishes are listed on a plastic menu, upon which you indicate your choices using a dry-erase pen. There’s an optional QR code to view a more detailed lineup, including pictures. While that’s a nice amenity, trying to navigate it all on a small phone screen can be a challenge.
Once the server has taken your order, it’s taped to the side of your booth for runners to identify which dish goes where, and the food just starts showing up when ready.
By and large, these dishes are in the “small plates” category made to share, which is typical of the dim sum experience. The offerings range from the very traditional (see the honey chicken feet) to the Americanized (crab rangoons… but with real crab!) among many other dim sum favorites like soup dumplings, shu mai, black bean spareribs and, of course, dumplings.
With the option to have them served steamed or pan-fried, the dumpling lineup is beyond robust, with over half a dozen options ranging from a simply vegetable version to bright green chive and pork; there’s also a “dumpling roulette” sampler platter for those who can’t decide.
Nana’s offers an even greater selection of buns, including the signature bao and the popular spicy chicken buns; there’s a range of other dishes as well. The Szechuan chicken is a perfectly fried pile of chicken thighs and charred scallions that doesn’t need the optional dipping sauce. The stir-fried beans are also charred just so, with the right amount of heat.
For dim sum vets, this is all very familiar, yet slightly elevated. Yes, Nana’s is a bit more expensive than other dim sum joints, but you’re seeing that investment on the plate and tasting it in every bite. There’s clearly a bit more care in the ingredients and the preparation that has made Nana’s a must-try destination.
The team behind Nana’s is a combination of friends and family with a long history in the restaurant business. Jack and Kelly Liu form the core, with Jack bringing a lifetime of restaurant experience and Kelly bringing the recipes from her grandmother in China. Yes…Nana is a real person, and you are eating her food.
“There’s a saying that if you see the owner’s kid doing their homework at the table, the food’s going to be good,” says Kang. “Because everybody lives there, they work and breathe the restaurant. They’ve been through so much that running a restaurant just kind of seems like the fun part…helping behind the scenes, setting tables, doing whatever needs to be done.”
With more locations on the way, maintaining quality and consistency can be a challenge. But Kelly writes all the menus and does all the tasting, while the chefs rotate between the restaurants on a regular basis to ensure that training and execution meet the same standard.
The Nana’s team expects to open a Parker location next month and to expand to Colorado Springs as early as June, with a Golden Triangle installment sometime after that. No matter where the outpost is located, they all have the same goal: providing anyone in metro Denver (and soon beyond) a place to stop, snack and enjoy Nana’s cooking.
Concludes Kang: “It’s like the history going back to the Silk Road to have places along the way where anybody could stop for a bite and have a little enjoyable moment.”
Nana’s Dim Sum & Dumplings is located at 2495 South Havana Street in Aurora; it’s open Monday through Thursday from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and 4:30 to 9:30 p.m.; Fridays from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and 4:30 to 10 p.m.; Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., and Sundays from noon to 9 p.m. For more information, visit nanasdimsumanddumplings.com/aurora.