Zoe Ma Ma plans move to Pearl Street

BOULDER — Zoe Ma Ma, the popular Boulder-born Chinese restaurant with a Denver outpost next to Union Station, is planning to move its original location from 10th Street to Pearl Street. 

Owned by James Beard nominee Edwin Zoe, Zoe Ma Ma intends to relocate from 2010 10th St. to a storefront at 919 Pearl St. that was previously a Chipotle restaurant, according to use-review documents submitted to Boulder city planning staff. 

The 2,435-square-foot space — adjacent to a vacant storefront that was most recently home to an Oskar Blues taproom, and a World of Beer before that — can seat 59 diners. The roughly 300-square-foot patio area has space for another 16 seats. 

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Plans call for a sprucing up of the interior, but  “we plan to use the same footprint as Chipotle,” restaurant representatives said in a memo to city planners.

It’s unclear when the Boulder Zoe Ma Ma, representatives of which did not respond to requests for comment Wednesday, will relocate.

Zoe Ma Ma, named after Edwin Zoe’s mother Anna Zoe, who inspired much of the menu, opened in 2010, with the Denver location coming online about four years later. 

Zoe Ma Ma, in a memo to city staffers, describes itself as “Chinese home cooking and authentic street food and bar that serves handmade potstickers, steamy buns, organic noodles and amazing daily specials.”

The Boulder location was featured on an episode of “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives” on the Food Network.

After launching the pair of Zoe Ma Ma restaurants, Edwin Zoe, a University of Colorado graduate, opened Chimera Ramen, which has rebranded Dragonfly Noodle after the COVID-19 pandemic. A second Dragonfly Noodle location opened last year on Denver’s 16th Street Mall.

Edwin Zoe was a James Beard Award semifinalist last year in the Outstanding Restaurateur category. Boulder County was well represented among the 2022 James Beard semifinalists, with Casian Seafood in Lafayette making the list in the Best New Restaurant category and Eric Skokan of Black Cat Farm Table Bistro in Boulder named a semifinalist in the Best Chef Mountain Region category.