Shanghai Bistro Made Big Changes Before Opening

In 2008 Henry Chan had to renew his driver’s license, so he drove on Carmichael  Road past the vacant Country Kitchen building and thought it’s be a good place to open .

“It was an accident,” he said of finding and acquiring the place.

After he called the listed number he found out who the property manager was, and that he knew him, and got the building.

“He said if you want it, it’s yours,” Chan said. “All of a sudden there was Hudson’s Shanghai Bistro.”

The “upscale casual” eatery with live jazz music, a modest patio and sushi buffet, Chan said, is a far cry from the old Country Kitchen.

“When people see the outside they see the same architecture as a Country Kitchen. But I gutted the place floor to ceiling, it looks nothing like it did on the inside,” he said. “It has a nice urban feel to it without being too crazy.”

Chan originally thought he could reupholster some booths and salvage some of the interior but decided against it and updated the whole place.

The menu is also completely different from the old place. Sushi accounts for about 50 percent of the sales, Chan said, while the rest is traditional Chinese cuisine. The best thing on the menu, Chan said is the “strange flavored chicken.”

“It’s a little sweet, a little sour and ad little tangy,” he said. “Sometimes people try it just because of the name. We had thought about changing it, but decided to leave it alone.”

The sushi bar is also a popular attraction.

This is Chan’s second go-round with Shanghai Bistro in Wisconsin; prior to this one, he had an Eau Claire location. Hudson, he said, seems to be a better fit for the Asian-cuisine palate.

“It’s closer to the Cities and people are more worldly and more well traveled,” he said.

In Eau Claire the college crowd helped him out, but for the most part the meat and potatoes community told him sushi was out of the question because “they don’t eat their bait.”

In addition to the current location Shanghai Bistro has a location in Stillwater. He also had a restaurant in Woodbury, but closed that one because there wasn’t a sense of community there and the city wasn’t supportive. The opposite was true when he came to set up shop in Hudson.

“The way things are run at city hall are wonderful, everyone there is so kind, generous and helpful,” he said. “If I did some paperwork wrong in the process of opening they’d help me get it right.”