![]() ![]() And I bet you a large portion of these places that are closing or in trouble are exactly that situation. Wilson Tang, second-generation owner of Nom Wah Tea Parlor, the oldest restaurant in New York’s Chinatown: I can’t imagine much worse than working 100 fucking hours a week for, like, $60,000 a year and just, when you do the math, realizing that you’re making way, way below minimum wage. And the saddest part is they never changed. It was all golden dragons and red lanterns. They didn’t care if their food was good or bad. That’s why they had two menus: one for who they wanted to be, one for who they had to be.Ĭecilia Chiang, James Beard Lifetime Achievement Award winner: They wanted green cards. Simone Tong, chef and owner of Little Tong (and soon Silver Apricot): It was survival. The forbidding city For generations, Chinese restaurants scraped by in hopes of getting ahead. This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity. With so many closures, the pressure is on for young entrepreneurial chefs to expand just to make up the shortfall.įortune spoke with many of them and other major voices in the community to make some sense of these unprecedented culinary, cultural, and economic shifts. They talk about, for example, the economics of ghost kitchens with Zuul or delivery options with Uber. Cecilia Chiang, the godmother of Chinese restaurants in America, has addressed the group, as has her son Philip (the P in P.F. But just as a culinary renaissance is flourishing in the Chinese restaurants of Los Angeles- “knockout” mapo tofu lasagna, y’all!-an economic and even spiritual revolution is seizing young Chinese entrepreneurs in New York.ĭuring low-key meetings at the Bank of China along Bryant Park and the China Institute in the Financial District, CHATT has gathered forces from 21 local restaurants-including Cafe China, Grain House, Junzi Kitchen, Little Tong, and MáLà Project-as well as four tea shops and half a dozen industry heavyweights, including Chowbus and Hall PR, all specifically to brainstorm and strategize for their futures. Chinese cooking is an art again, and gastro-impressionists are everywhere. The crisis, though, is also an opportunity, not just to reshape the landscape and palate, but to unveil a joy shrouded for centuries: a truly Chinese approach to food in this country, free from American habits and the white gaze. “The common reasons mentioned were upcoming retirement, long working hours, and diminishing sales.” “I would say more than 60% of these restaurants are selling or the owners are considering the possibility of selling,” he says. 2700 Alton Parkway, Irvine, CA.In recent weeks, whenever he went on location-scouting trips in some of New York’s most popular neighborhoods for Chinese restaurants-including the East Village, Harlem, Midtown West, and Two Bridges, among others-Xuhui Zhang, Junzi Kitchen’s head of real estate development, routinely encountered an alarming urgency. Otherwise, as always with Tim Ho Wan, expect a line. While the restaurant does not take reservations, diners will be able to use the Yelp app to join the waitlist and receive a text when their table is ready. After May 18, hours will shift to 10 a.m. daily, with an extension to midnight on Friday and Saturday. In the meantime, Tim Ho Wan will keep hours starting tomorrow from 10 a.m. The window won’t open right away, though - expect it to arrive on May 18. Irvine’s Tim Ho Wan will not only offer dine-in capabilities with over 100 seats inside, they’ll also have private dining rooms for large groups to reserve ahead (reservations are not otherwise accepted), and a takeaway window for the restaurant’s most famous items. This new Southern California location lands inside the packed Diamond Jamboree plaza, a similarly popular hub for Asian-American restaurants in Orange County. There are a couple of California-specific menu items unique to this location as well, including a deep-fried bean curd with avocado and shrimp. Tim Ho Wan is well known to fans of the dim sum genre, not only for its heralded status as the self-described “cheapest Michelin-starred meal” but for its robust menu of favorites from shrimp siu mai to the iconic BBQ pork bun. The restaurant has been steadily growing its international footprint in recent years, jumping from its home in Hong Kong to locations in New York City, Hawaii, and even Las Vegas soon enough. Some of the world’s most famous dim sum is ready to debut in Southern California, as Tim Ho Wan looks to open in the Orange County city of Irvine tomorrow.
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