Serious not serious 🍽
Serious not serious 🍽
Pho King Wing lacks a singular focus, but that's partly what makes it so interesting — and good
Let’s go ahead and address the name first, because you kinda have to: Pho King Wing.
Pho being pronounced “fuh” — that results in “Fucking Wing.”
Yes, they’re aware. “We were smokin’ some weed and taking shots,” says chef/owner Edward Baham. “We were already gonna do pho, and I was like ‘I want to do wings,’ and another buddy said ‘just call it ‘fuh-king wings.’”
Credit due elsewhere, they aren’t the first to use that play on words, but chutzpah points awarded; they’re the first to do it here. (Relatedly, check out “The 14 Most Punny Pho Restaurant Names in Pho-king History,” a random article on which I stumbled, which happened to pick Springs-local Phở-Nomenal among its choices.)
Now, before you write Baham and his business partner Uriah Holland off as goofballs and dismiss Pho King Wing as amateur hour on Academy Boulevard — unworthy of your time and dollar — you should know their playful spirit and audacity actually translates into some surprisingly good food for the respective categories. We read some reviews online ahead of time (something I rarely do, but was compelled to here for some reason, noticing the guys are good at responding to comments) and noticed lots of positive reviews that didn’t appear to be written by their best friends (always my concern in that arena).
Still, I was half expecting a shit show after studying the menu, which ranges from pho to wings to gyros to Southern food to random crowdpleasers like nachos and egg rolls. Like, what is this place trying to be? What’s their identity? Is this going to be yet another eclectic try-and-do-everything place that actually does little-to-nothing well — lacking core focus? In a land of dedicated Mediterranean spots, why would I eat gyro at a place named Pho King Wing? (That somehow feels like heading to dentist for an eye exam.)
So many questions. Welcome to my brain. (Where the squirrels dart by every 10 minutes or so and the simians huck poo at each other pretty much constantly to an outdated music soundtrack. Enjoy.)
Anyway, I’m just going to kill any remaining suspense now and say that though I usually have an impeccable gut instinct about these matters, I was wrong, and Pho King Wing, brand confusion aside, manages to pull off some menu mayhem.
The Cornish hen — oh wait, what, you weren’t expecting Cornish hen? Get with the Pho King program, yeesh — is a damn delightful bite of fried chicken, with highly crunchy golden-brown jacket and juicy interior. Baham brines the birds, which being butchered younger by common practice, already tend to be more tender than the big birds we’re used to across the pond. And the side of green beans we order, they aren’t frozen nonsense from a bag or mush from a can à la sad cafeteria fare. They’re fresh, blanched, snappy green beans that could accompany any fine dining entrée fashionably.
I do decide to let it roll and I order the gyro platter, and it’s completely respectable. There’s a moody tangle of chopped lettuce with tomato, red onion and olive fixings, plus a fan of basic pita triangles. The tzatziki’s notably bright with seasoning and the the shavings of gyro meat have a nice char on the edges. In speaking with Baham later, I learn he’s ordering a GMO- and preservative-free meat log directly from Greece (overnighted when ordered) to avoid the commercial fillers in other products, and he buys a specialty tzatziki spice that’s also “a much better product.”
Our sides of fries, both regular and sweet potato, are crispy and well-curated. They’re one of the only items not made in house, along with desserts, currently (other than cookies). Even for spring rolls and other appetizers, Baham says he’s grinding his own meats, whipping cheese filling, and making his own infused butters and sauces (with exception to a couple wing sauces). For the pho, he makes a beef bone consommé, with allspice, black cardamom, fennel and star anise among other ingredients; he preps a vegetarian broth too. The beef broth sips mild (with our rare steak meat option already placed in the bowl) until we toss in the provided herbs, and there’s a few bottled sauces available for spiking the broth as you see fit. It’s not drive-for-it pho on par with one of our favorite spots outside Denver named Pho Lee, but it’s perfectly serviceable and satisfying.
Where things get really Pho King interesting are with Baham’s wings. There’s a menu option for injected jumbo wings (with either lemon butter, Cajun butter or black garlic butter) and then house “Incredible Wings,” with nine sauce options. Baham marinates the chicken for 24 hours, fries them with the injected sauces inside (if ordered as such), then pan-finishes them to caramelize the sauces, more spices and fresh bell peppers in the case of our You’re A Jerk Sauce. The Na-Na-Nashville Hot get bits of pickles.
We’ve ordered the black garlic butter injection and lemon butter injection (you can pick two injection and sauce flavors on the 10-piece plate), which do get pretty much buried under the huge spice of these sauces. (He later tells me that you can taste the injections much better on naked wings, which some customers order.) Still, both sauces are pretty badass and fiery, full of flavor, not just heat. The jerk wings hold a bit of a five-spice note and a habanero floral quality that’s bright. The Nashville’s hot glazing sears our lips a bit and builds with bites. A side of fried rice is a touch bland and could use more underlying flavor, like sesame oil, soy, etc. But still, overall these are solidly good wings (this coming from a not-a-big-wing guy) that earn their place in the restaurant’s moniker.
That’s all we ate, but the reason I later called Baham is all my aforementioned questions from my busy brain. I wanted to know more about him and Holland.
Holland was our waiter, who brings an impressive amount of energy to his work, almost better called a performance. He reminded us of Chris Rock, partly because he resembles him a touch, and even joked with a similar cadence. He’s boisterous, enthusiastic about their food, and pretty funny as he interacts with his tables. When I ask him if he’s coming from inside the industry, he says he’s not, but lists about a dozen other jobs he’s held, sounding like a Rock of all trades.
They met a few years ago says Baham because Holland was the sprinkler maintenance guy his landlord was using. Baham began cutting Holland’s hair — I’ll get to that part of his story. They became fast friends. When Baham was envisioning this business, during the pandemic malaise (when he’d endured a long shutdown and noticed a lot of military clients fall off) he ran it by Holland, saying “I’m gonna pull the trigger, do you want in?” (Yes, he Pho King did, as we now know.)
Baham, now 40, grew up across Europe as an Army brat, and remembers being in Germany when the wall came down and watching Czechoslovakia split up soon after. He moved to the Springs as a teenager for his parents’ second-to-last duty station in the Army, and attended Palmer High School. For him, it was culture shock, and he wasn’t happy to be here. “I was like, there are no castles here, no mass transit, everything’s more strict… when I came here I felt isolated.”
He joined the ProStart culinary program, telling me he’s always enjoyed cooking. His family heritage hails back to New Orleans, so he recalls cooking shrimp, étouffée and wings as a family. (Which explains more Cajun/Creole food he wants to add to the menu in addition to the existing catfish and jambalaya — he’s somewhat space limited in his current spot.) He didn’t go right into cooking out of high school, instead joining the Marines. When he later got out of the military, he then went into kitchens, cooking mostly in corporate settings, until that burned him out of his passion for cooking. That’s when the eight years of haircutting came in, during which he returned to enjoying crawfish boils at home for his friends and cooking for himself.
Then came the chance to take over this space on Flintridge Drive, with the plan to partner with then-owner of Pho Original at the site. That person later backed out. But that’s how pho service entered the picture, both to retain current clientele and keep an item that Baham felt he could execute easily enough. His desire to build-out from there was partly based on thinking that pho won’t sell well during hot months and that he wanted more late-night-style eats. That reminds him of being in Germany, out to bars late, eating gyro, Doner Kebab and rotisserie Cornish hen over fries, hence that menu inspiration.
On that note, Pho King Wing, which opened in January, is working on a liquor license and they have plans to extend hours past midnight on weekends. They’re currently open until 11 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, closing at 9 p.m. on weekdays. They offer online ordering, but wisely skip third-party delivery services for the exorbitant fees.
Before we end our chat, I ask Baham what feedback he’s heard on the scattershot nature of Pho King Wing’s menu and if anyone else has come in a bit hesitant, like me.
“We get people saying we don’t have a focus or vision, but I look at it like, ‘you don’t complain when you order your shrimp Alfredo at Chili’s.’” (Touché. Not speaking from personal experience, let that be clear.)
“I knew I could put it all together and keep it flowing. I have the speed and momentum, the control,” he says. “It’s not supremely complicated… I’m giving people what they want. I want this to be a melting pot so everyone can eat here.”
He says folks will come in for pho, but decide to order catfish. He offers a six-wing combo with pho now, which is “the best of both worlds.”
Plus, he concludes, there’s those people you take out for sushi and they’ll only try the California roll. He believes he has to offer stuff for picky eaters, basically an adult kids menu.
“We have all had people we’ve gone out with that won’t eat something,” he says. “I’m like — why did I even bring your ass out?”
Honest coverage ; well thought out. Quality of reviews is on a National level.
Thanks for writing this. I read it after you posted but just got over there today to try it. We loved it. The Pho and the wings were delicious. We will definitely go back soon even though its not very close to where we live :)