Editor's note: The Free Press features a local business each week that has used the services of Grand Junction's Business Incubator Center. During the recession, the Incubator has seen an increase in people seeking to start their own business.

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — There's something appealing about a restaurant whose chef says he has the “heart and the passion” for cooking, and then spends a good deal of time talking about the sauces he's developed and perfected over the years.

Evi Cruz, owner and chef of eC's Asian Station, 200 W. Grand Ave. in the Grand Central Plaza, learned to cook basic Chinese food in Vail where he worked for six years before moving to Los Angeles where he worked for a Peruvian-Chinese man who owned a high-end Chinese restaurant there.

In California, Cruz learned the art of infusion — creating sauces using spices and different vegetables.

“We experimented; (and created) a really good recipe made out of vegetables, rather than MSG. Most Chinese restaurants use a basic brown sauce of MSG, sugar and soy sauce,” Cruz said.

You won't find the food additive, also known as monosodium glutamate in Cruz's restaurant, however. He doesn't need the artificial “flavor enhancer.”

Instead, Cruz talks about using the “sweetness of the bell pepper,” and the “bitterness of the onion.”

Cruz, 41, worked for more than a decade for his friend in California before bringing his wife, Maggie, and their two children to Colorado in 2008 for a vacation. They loved Colorado, saw an opportunity to purchase a restaurant in Grand Junction, and decided to move here. They totally gutted, remodeled and renamed the former Chinese restaurant, eC's Asian Station.

Despite being in a poor location, Cruz said, the restaurant attracted a following. When the lease came up for renewal, Cruz was already working with the Business Incubator Center to secure a loan to move to another, better location.

They signed a lease at the Grand Central Plaza location in March 2010, remodeled for the next eight months, then opened Nov. 17.

“Right after we opened people started pouring in,” Cruz said.

Business is two to three times what it was at the former location, he said.

The restaurant has been open seven days a week but as of March 20, will be closed Sundays.

“I need time to be with my family and give thanks to God for all he gave — I guess customers will forgive us for that,” Cruz said.

Unless he closes a day, Cruz doesn't have a day off. He's always there, in the kitchen overseeing his kitchen staff of five.

“The type of cooking that we do — I have to be there,” he said. “Every food we cook, has to be cooked to perfection. I want everything just right.”

The lunch menu contains a range of traditional pork, chicken or seafood — or vegetarian — Chinese dishes.

The expanded dinner menu includes appetizers such as crab-stuffed shrimp cigars — with cream cheese, macadamia nuts, chives wrapped in a spring roll and served with a mango Dijon sauce.

Salads include a gorgonzola, mango and beet mixture, and a Chinese chicken salad.

Cruz said he's so busy he can't be out front as much as he used to be, although he still knows most customers by name.

“Love and passion — is what I transmit through the food,” Cruz said. “It takes longer to prepare, but it's well worth it.”

The restaurant is open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, and 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday.