Owners hope to reopen the popular Center Street business in December
I met Alex Borichevsky, owner of the restaurant 98 Center, in front of the restaurant’s main door that has a sign that says “Closed.”
It’s been up since July 2, when they shut down initially for a summer break and began work to expand the business space.
We walked around the corner and he waved his hand to show off the parklet, where customers can sit outside to enjoy pho, salads, and báhn mì sandwiches that 98 Center is known for.
When Borichevsky started the restaurant in 2016, he envisioned a menu inspired by his travels in Vietnam and his roots in Philadelphia, to offer a dining experience not found anywhere else in Moab.
We continued a few more feet to a side door that used to open to neighboring offices, but now opens into an expanded kitchen space, a helpful improvement to simplify the flow of the servers to the parklet.
The new plans also include a walk-in refrigerator, expanded server line, a bar that looks out into the indoor seating zone, and a 16-foot hood for an oven with a griddle, stove, and fryer.
“It’s going to make an immense difference,” Borichevsky said.
This is not the building’s first make-over—it was actually never meant to be a restaurant, Borichevsky said. It was first transformed into a restaurant with Pantelli’s Desert Deli, and before that it was Nifty’s Fashions Consignment Shop.
This transformation comes with its challenges, particularly getting an older building up to current building code. Since the kitchen space shares walls with two neighboring businesses—Desert Highlights Guiding Company and Singha Thai Cuisine—a double layer of firewall will be installed to meet commercial building codes and “prevent catastrophes,” as Borichevsky puts it.
The restaurant received a permit for their new vent at last week’s Moab City Council meeting, after starting the process in July. Borichevsky said he worked with Michael Black, the city’s community development director, and talked to individual city council members, and finally, the motion was passed on October 10.
“Everything in government just takes a long time,” Borichevsky said.
While these are necessary improvements to move the restaurant into the future, the process has taken longer than Borichevsky would have liked. The restaurant has now been closed for four months.
Borichevsky said by the time the restaurant does open, he’ll likely have to find new staff—since he can’t guarantee an opening date, many of the cooks and servers who previously worked at 98 Center had to find other jobs.
“Every step of the way is just finding out we’re another month or another few weeks out,” Borichevsky said.
Despite the delays, he’s hoping to reopen the restaurant and show off the new space sometime around December.
