Brian Nguyen’s family’s yogurt shop at 1612 Ute Blvd. in Kimball Junction was recently converted into a shabu shabu restaurant that opened Oct. 21.
He said his family chose the name Shabu Shabu House for their new eatery because it’s modeled after his sister’s establishment with that name in San Diego.
Shabu shabu is Japanese hotpot. Each table is equipped with a pot of boiling broth into which meats, vegetables and tofu is dropped almost like soup fondue.
That name doesn’t make Kevin Valaika happy. He owns Shabu, a six-year veteran of Main Street that specializes in Asian fusion, particularly sushi.
To make matters worse, Valaika said he’s really close to finalizing plans to open a branch of Shabu in Newpark near Maxwell’s and Best Buy only a few hundred yards away.
“It’s really frustrating,” he said Wednesday.
To be fair, Shabu Shabu House is 100 percent shabu shabu while Shabu is only about 10 percent. Still, Valaika said he feels powerless about the eminent confusion.
“All I can do is spread the word,” he said.
Shabu Shabu House is near Loco Lizard and the Szechwan Chinese Kitchen. They’ll still serve yogurt and smoothies, Nguyen said.
Valaika’s Newpark restaurant will be built this winter and could be done as early as May if everything goes as planned. It will bring the number of Asian restaurants in Kimball Junction to six.
Nguyen said he’s not worried about the names causing confusion. Shabu is known for a different type of cuisine. It’s hard to confuse raw fish with a boiling pot of beef.
“They specialize in sushi, we specialize in Japanese hotpot,” he said.