New restaurant opens on Massachusetts Street
Encore Cafe offers a unique menu unlike common take-out restaurants
The casual dining experience includes flat screen televisions and a karaoke room, to come soon.
Friday, October 19th, 2007
Encore Café, a new restaurant in downtown Lawrence, offers a mixture of Asian influenced food and American favorites such as smoothies and brisket.
Denny Wong, co-manager of Encore, said the restaurant was something unique compared with most oriental take-out places.
Photo by Katherine Loeck
The beef teriyaki bamboo pot and taro milk tea are popular specialties on the menu at Encore cafe, 1007 Massachusetts St. The cafe opened Monday.
Encore, which opened Monday at 1007 Massachusetts St., has several types of bubble tea, a popular Chinese drink, along with milkshakes, slushies and coffee drinks. The menu features snacks such as edamame and popcorn chicken. Salads made of seaweed and calamari also are available. Encore offers a variety of entrees including Asian inspired dishes such as wonton egg noodles and Thai and curry dishes.
“The food is prepared a different way, and the curry sauce is different from others,” Wong said. “The bubble tea is totally different than what people have had before.”
Wanna Zhao, Juang, China junior and co-manager of Encore, said the restaurant’s unique dishes included pineapple fried rice and the beef teriyaki on baked rice.
Encore’s smoothies include mango, kiwi and strawberry with optional tapioca on the bottom. The restaurant also offers hot and cold teas such as jasmine milk tea, coconut milk tea and passion fruit green tea.
The restaurant has a casual setting with two flat-screen televisions and a karaoke room that is coming soon.
“We wanted to make it more fun, not one of the higher-class places,” Zhao said. “People can come in, enjoy themselves and socialize.”
Zhao said the restaurant would have its liquor license in a few weeks and would then begin serving alcoholic beverages. The karaoke room will be open in a month or two after it is finished being sound-proofed. Zhao wanted to add the karaoke room because of the popularity of karaoke in China and to attract Asian student groups.
Zhao said customers had begun coming in, and she already saw some students come back twice in one day.
“Our menu is really different, and I think people should give it a try. People will like it,” Zhao said.
— Edited by Ashlee Kieler
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