Another restaurant closes
Ki’Na in downtown Fort Lauderdale has shut its doors after opening in October 2017.
The third time was not the charm for a site that has proved troublesome for Fort Lauderdale restaurants. Ki’Na closed recently, the latest in a line of eateries to fail in the downtown spot at 420 N. Federal Highway, on the busy U.S. 1 corridor. Ki’Na, an ambitious modern Asian restaurant from the same owners as nearby Temple Street Eatery and Christina Wan’s Mandarin House, lasted less than a year after opening in October 2017.
“I have mixed feelings because this is my first failure with an Asian restaurant,” says owner Christina Huynh, whose maiden name was Wan and whose family has owned Chinese restaurants in South Florida since 1966. “I thought the food was very good and chef Vince [Tien] was talented but we should never have marketed it as Chinese. If we called it Euro-Asian fusion it would have had a better chance.”
Kitchen Four Twenty, a Southern-style, comfort-food breakfast and lunch restaurant from Huynh, and Giraffas, a franchise of a Brazilian fast-food burger chain from other owners, previously flopped at the site.
What comes next? “Know anybody that wants a restaurant?” Huynh asks. She holds a longterm lease and a liquor license for the site, but says she is not interested in developing another project at the location, which borders affluent
Victoria Park and sits across from new highrises sprouting in booming Flagler Village. She says the area could use a good, familyfriendly Italian restaurant.
In a post on Ki’Na’s Facebook page announcing the closing, Huynh wrote, “After much thought, we have had to make a difficult and sad decision. We have decided to turn the page and close Ki’Na’s doors … Our Ki’Na family is very appreciative of the care and support you have shown us. Thank you for your passion over the last 10 months.”
In a tepid two-star review of Ki’Na earlier this year I praised Tien for certain dishes and his handling of high-end vegetables, but wrote that “much about my Ki’Na experience was disappointing and disorienting … Ki’Na is billed as ‘memories inspired Chinese cooking,’ but this was not like any Chinese I remembered from anywhere, anytime.”
Huynh says Tien used butter and cheese and other ingredients typically not found in Chinese food. He used a flattop grill and pans, not a gas-fired stove with woks, because of the kitchen’s original setup from Giraffas. “Vince is classically trained and used a lot of French techniques, so it really was more Euro-Asian fusion,” Huynh says. “He used a lot of Vietnamese ingredients, a lot of fish sauce, and that was different. Some people were confused by it, but I thought the flavors were very good and creative.”
Christina Wan’s Mandarin House, which sits two blocks north, is a traditional Americanized Chinese restaurant that has done well since moving from Hollywood in 2005. And the adjacent Temple Street Eatery, a fast-casual Asian restaurant run by Huynh’s nephew, with wonton noodle soups, chicken wings and Korean bulgogi sandwiches, has been a big success since opening in 2014.
“If we called it Euro-Asian fusion it would have had a better chance.” Christina Huynh, owner