The last place in the US that I've seen where you can still soundly do that type of Chinese restaurant, is in small towns / cities, under 10k-15k people roughly

The last place in the US that I've seen where you can still soundly do that type of Chinese restaurant, is in small towns / cities, under 10k-15k people roughly. The expectations are much lower there and people are happy to have variety in most any form. You have to get under the Chipotle line approximately in terms of population required to support that type of chain. The trade-off of course is potentially less volume (although also less competition).