Gene's Chinese Flatbread Cafe

Open space in this 20-seat, cash-only noodle house can be hard to come by. Office workers in shirtsleeves rub elbows with hoodie-clad students as they tuck into steaming bowls of spicy soup and orders of hand-pulled flour noodles (smacked into shape on the premises). Carnivores have plenty of choices, such as the stellar cumin-lamb noodles and the namesake pork or beef flatbread sandwiches, a staple food in the owner’s Western Chinese region of Xi’an. Most customers take their orders to go.