Photo credit: Hollie Grace James
Completely surrounded on all sides by the authentic sounds and smells of family-owned-and-operated Chinese, Vietnamese, and Korean restaurants, the newest transplant to the Chinatown neighborhood may come to some as a bit of a surprise. This teeny tiny corner space, which was once a South Asian grocery store, has been completely transformed in order to give you nothing but the brightest and coziest feels, and hip welcoming vibes.
Corner Peach is one of those places that aims to attract a broad spectrum of customers, along with varying degree of tastes and palettes, by becoming a sort of three-in-one kind of deal – coffee shop and upscale diner-esque spot serving sandwiches, salads, and pastries during the day, intimate bar for snacks and drinks during happy hour, and finally turning into a casual, fine dining establishment a-la-scratch kitchen for the evening crowd.
This intimate 30-seat neighborhood locale opened in early January thanks to the hard work and dedication of local dynamic duo and successful experienced restaurant pros Emma Campbell (Supply and Demand) and Caroline Murphy (Edgar and Town). This success wasn’t without its fair share of setbacks though, one of which you’ll easily find in online forums like Reddit. The great controversy, which caused considerable backlash, was rooted in the proposed original name, Too Beaucoup (which some thought was derived from a racist reference to a sex worker in Stanley Kubrick’s 1987 film Full Metal Jacket). The two weren’t fazed though – they simply went right back to the drawing board, apologized, and swiftly changed the name to Corner Peach.
With a seasonal menu that changes often, this is the place to go for fresh ingredients and a local take on the trendiest dishes. An ideal location for sharing plates, choosing a few different options from each aptly appointed category is recommended.
Starting with snacks, your culinary adventure begins with that one thing you really can’t get enough of – giant morsels of hot, straight-from-the-oven fresh sourdough bread + butter. The snacks are also perfect if you’re only there for some cool cocktails – the sweet pickles are a perfectly light and crisp pairing.
Moving on to smalls, the melt-in-your-mouth brussel sprouts are halved and tossed in butter, bacon, honey, and thyme, and the beets are fresh, vibrant, and earthy, served alongside smoked and cured beef, horseradish, and walnuts.
The spaghetti with mushrooms, egg, pepper and parm is presumably the safest choice among the bigs, not to mention aesthetically bland, but completely thrives in its simplicity (plus there are enough other pretty dishes to snap for your Insta).
Finally, if you’re the kind of person who eats dessert first in case the world ends and you haven’t been able to get to that last course of your meal yet, you simply can’t leave without trying one – maple custard, lemon granite, brown butter wafer, need I say more?
