Paxton Street from Harrisburg to Swatara has grown into an ethnic eating destination
By SUE GLEITER, The Patriot-News
March 14, 2010, 11:47AM
DAN GLEITER, The Patriot-News
Ethnic restaurants and markets abound on Paxton Street. At Pho Miss Saigon, Le Kiem Fitzgerald, visiting from Virginia, eats pho (Vietnamese noodle soup) with her daughter-in-law and grandchildren. The restaurant is in the Asia Mall in the 1000 block of South 13th Street in Harrisburg, off of Paxton.
Picture Paxton Street. Along the road is a jumble of businesses, traffic signals, concrete and telephone poles. Crossing two municipalities, the street is anchored on the eastern end by the Harrisburg Mall in Swatara Twp. and at the opposite end it merges with Second Street in Harrisburg.
At least a dozen Chinese buffets, sushi restaurants, Asian markets and pho soup spots have created a new eating destination. Shoppers come here for the cultural experience, a chance to shop for rice noodles, bok choy and fresh fish or simply to satisfy their craving for pho or sushi.
The opening of Asia Mall just off Paxton Street last year further defined the area as an Asian shopping district. A grocery store, nail salon, travel agent, video store, bakery and two restaurants fill the indoor complex.
With new restaurants appearing along its length, the street — nicknamed by some as “Chinatown” — continues to enjoy a restaurant rebirth. Chinese and Vietnamese merchants consider the street’s traffic flow and accessibility to Route 83 appealing.
“It has built a dynamic,” says Bill Hubler, CEO of the Chinese Cultural and Arts Institute in Harrisburg.
Combine those factors with good rent prices and a growing Asian population in the midstate and the perfect equation emerges, he says.
Look no further than the recent weekend of Lunar New Year to see why.
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