Sakura Square owners prepare to redevelop downtown block – BizWest bizwest.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from bizwest.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
But “demolition and construction are still years away," CEO Gary Yamashita said of “the only remnants of the once-thriving, multi-block Japanese community.”
Meet the Mother-Daughter Duos Behind Pacific Mercantile and Truong An Gifts
The two long-standing family enterprises are at the heart of Denver’s hubs for Asian American culture, community, and commerce.Patricia Kaowthumrong •
On a frigid Monday morning in late December, Jolie Noguchi leads me through Pacific Mercantile Co. in Sakura Square, a grocery store her family has owned for nearly 77 years. It’s 7:30 a.m. and the shop’s doors won’t open to customers for another hour and a half. Jolie walks me past refrigerator cases filled with containers of fresh miso and colorful cellophane-wrapped logs of kamaboko (steamed fish cakes). We pass by shelves neatly stacked with a kaleidoscopic array of instant udon, ramen, and yakisoba noodles, wrapped in compact single-serving packages. As we wander, Jolie cheerfully gives me a rundown of the different types of osechi, the foods traditionally eaten during the upcoming Japanese New Year.