The owners of a Lakewood fried chicken joint consider themselves optimists. Every time they’ve found their storefront window shattered by a rock, they’ve named the projectile, put it on display and got back to business.
“I guess it’s just like an ongoing joke,” said Ivy Pham, co-owner of Kickin Chicken. “Now, we have three rocks, and I don’t want any more rocks.”
The latest act of vandalism, which occurred in early August, counts as the third time that Pham and her brother John have weathered petty crime at their family-owned restaurant. However, she says the incidents aren’t isolated to their location at 275 S. Union Blvd., with other businesses recently targeted by criminals, too.
“Overall, the neighborhood is experiencing vandalism,” Pham said.
Days before the rock flew through the window of Kickin Chicken on August 7, a man broke into Ballmer Peak Distillery down the street, stealing a bottle of Bäsk Nömört — the distillery’s play on Chicago’s Malört — and tobacco bitters. And in Denver’s Westwood neighborhood, which runs adjacent to Lakewood, burglaries at Columbine Steak House and Lounge, Cultura Chocolate and other community staples have shaken locals.
For their part, Pham and Eric Strom, co-owner of Ballmer Peak Distillery, have taken the crimes in stride, using humor to cope.
At Kickin Chicken, the trio of stones sits on a shelf next to awards. Small signs introduce one of them as Bob, which was thrown on the restaurant’s grand opening day in 2020, and the second as Oscar. On the latter’s sign, it reads: “I don’t think my family was ready just yet to adopt another rock, but they did and here I am!”
Pham, 33, is polling customers on possible names for the newest addition. “We just can’t let that overshadow the hard work of the team, what we stand for,” she said. “So, that’s why we put some humor into it.”
Resilience runs in her family. Her parents hail from Vietnam and emigrated to the U.S. after the Vietnam War. Colorado-born Pham grew up in the restaurant industry, watching her mom run phở restaurants in Aurora and Lakewood. During the pandemic, she and her brother opened their own restaurant, with an approach she described as “fried chicken with kind of a twist — fusion, almost.”
Their menu offers an eclectic range of choices: chicken tenders with a cheddar jalapeño bubble waffle, Mexican street corn, Vietnamese slaw, Thai iced tea, Vietnamese iced coffee and more. But the chicken sandwich and chicken katsu reign supreme as the most popular, Pham said.
At Ballmer Peak Distillery, the owners are also trying to have some fun. They created a specialty shot related to the break-in: a concoction that consists of the stolen liquor and bitters. But Strom recommends trying a house favorite, the Three Dots & A Dash rum cocktail, instead.
“There’s nothing we can do about it. There’s no point in getting mad about it,” Strom said. “It’s just learn what we can do in the future and try to be upbeat about it.”
Since the distillery at 12347 W. Alameda Pkwy. first opened in 2019, Strom and his co-owner, Austin Adamson, haven’t dealt with any issues until the burglary over two weeks ago. Through the building’s cameras, Strom watched as a man smashed a window, then took his products.
“It was just kind of a crime of opportunity,” he said.
After Strom, 35, shared the incident on social media, users responded with anecdotes of their own about other crimes in the area.
“It’s a fairly quiet neighborhood, so it’s not something that we necessarily thought was an issue that we’d have to contend with a whole lot,” he said. “Once it happened to us, it kind of shed a light — oh yeah, everybody else seems to be having this issue.”
But these entrepreneurs aren’t letting the incidents hinder their successes. On August 8, Ballmer Peak Distillery opened its second location in Lakewood at 275 S. Sheridan Blvd. Kickin Chicken also plans to open another location in Aurora near the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus in October.
“We’re very optimistic people,” Pham said. “Of course, anybody faces their challenges, but it’s just how you’re going to overcome it — and your mindset after.”
