Owner’s tastes infuse all, from space to plates, at The 052
Angela Moser wields a personal touch with a sledgehammer and some Ranch dressing.
Let us explain.
As the owner of The 052, 11261 S. Eastern Ave., Henderson, Moser wanted to create a restaurant/bar that is reflective of the kind of woman she is.
"I like to drink, I like to gamble and I like little small places, so I made it exactly what I wanted," Moser says with a hearty laugh that serves as a kind of verbal exclamation point punctuating the end of many of her sentences.
And so Moser refurbished the space that houses The 052 herself, handling demolition chores with a little help from the manager she hired to oversee the business.
She took an intensely hands-on approach to it all, right down to the salad dressing.
"I actually blended the Ranch myself, with the exact ratio of thickness to flavor," she says with another good-natured chuckle.
When Moser was done, she had just what she wanted: a homey, welcoming hang with a neighborhood feel.
"I was just trying to make a nice little cozy gaming bar with good food that wasn't corporate-owned," she says of The 052, which opened in October.
Moser, a waitress since she was 18 years old, had operated bars before. But entering the restaurant business was a new endeavor.
"I saw all these little bars folding and I'm like, 'You know what? I can do this,' " she recalls. "I was sitting with my manager at the bar he used to work at, and I was like, 'Hey, man, why don't we have a bar? We know what we're doing.' I started working on that day on it."
That was more than a year ago.
Now Moser has a place built in her image, complete with the smiley face that greets customers as they enter, letting them know that surveillance cameras are watching them, right outside the front door.
"It's been fun," she says. "My friends come in and say, 'I can see you written all over this place.' "
The 052, which seats about 100, is open from 6 a.m. to 2 a.m. daily.
Specialties: panini sandwich, with fries, coleslaw, cottage cheese or onion rings, $8.99; filet mignon sliders, with fries, coleslaw, cottage cheese or onion rings, $10.95
Appetizers: Mozzarella Moons, with homemade Ranch dressing, $6.95; Monkey Balls (barbecue meatballs with cheese), $6.95
Salads: apple walnut chicken salad, $8.95; tomato salad with cucumbers and feta cheese tossed in olive oil, red wine vinegar and oregano, $6.95
Entrees: chicken piccata with garlic bread, $8.99; lemon chicken, over artichokes, tomatoes and pasta, $8.99
Desserts: Banana Xango (deep-fried banana cheesecake burrito with a rum brown sugar walnut sauce), $4.95; chocolate brownie with chocolate ice cream and walnuts, $4.95
Information: 485-5609
By JASON BRACELIN
