“I think people will call in big to-go orders for Chinese New Year,” says Derek Wu, owner of Wu’s Wonton King. No one is being boastful or pontificating.” Shakera Jones, Black Girls Dine Too “You build a sense of community through storytelling and the bottles people bring from home. But they’re bracing for a difficult winter and lackluster Chinese New Year, whose festivities begin on February 12.
With a combination of luck, loyal diners and perseverance, these restaurants have held on through the pandemic so far. It’s just, ‘I got a killer bottle that’s going to be fire with this noodle dish.’ ”Ĭhinatown is dotted with BYOBs, but some hold a special place in the hearts of New York’s wine community, like Peking Duck House, Wu’s Wonton King, Spicy Village, Hop Kee, and for late night, Great NY Noodletown. No one is being boastful or pontificating. “You build a sense of community through storytelling and the bottles people bring from home,” says Jones, a technology officer at Mount Sinai Health System, wine enthusiast, and the creative force behind food and wine blog Black Girls Dine Too. Shakera Jones likens BYOB meals to a potluck, but for wine. It’s the most wonderfully optimistic version of reality.” Peking Duck House, another Chinse BYOB popular with wine crowds, continues to use outdoor seating to weather than pandemic, despite colder months / Photo by Caroline Hatchett A special connection to the somm community “You always get stares when you bring in all these bottles, but when other diners start to see what we’re drinking, they’re always like, ‘We should have done that, too.’ We never finish bottles, drink every last drop, and if someone in the room wants wine, we share. “Trying to recreate that experience in solo fashion with take-out doesn’t make sense,” says Miguel de Leon, wine director at Pinch Chinese in Soho and a BYOB regular. In the even more niche realm of BYOBs, much of the appeal lies in the alchemy of gathering with friends, eating great food, and drinking wines you love. It’s the most wonderfully optimistic version of reality.” Miguel de Leon, wine director, Pinch Chinese “We never finish bottles, drink every last drop, and if someone in the room wants wine, we share. It’s hard to crawl out of that,” says Palmer. “By the time outdoor dining came, people owed months and months of back rent. Many, like Spicy Village, don’t use delivery apps or have credit card technology, and Chinatown was one of the last of the city’s neighborhoods to have outdoor seating approved. And the ‘kung flu’ rhetoric didn’t go away.”Ĭompounding the problem, Palmer says that language barriers and pen-and-paper bookkeeping locked businesses out of government aid. Without that business, they were already struggling. Chinese New Year falls around that time, and it’s the most lucrative season for the neighborhood. “Racist and xenophobic rhetoric was in the ether in January and February. “These places went into lockdown at a deficit,” says Louise Palmer, the group’s press representative. Co-owner Wendy Lian where an ever-present line of diners and wine lovers used to wait for one of Spicy Village’s in-demand tables / Photo by Caroline Hatchett Chinatown’s new not-so-normalĪs of September, 27% of businesses in New York’s Chinatown had permanently closed, according to Send Chinatown Love, a Covid-19 relief organization that helps small, Asian-owned businesses. Lian, who dreams of opening a larger, grander restaurant one day, says sales are down 75%. On a snowy afternoon in December, a single take-out bag waited by the register for pick-up. Ten months later, to-go supplies occupy her tables and, rather than guests, a delivery bike hugs the wall. Co-owner Wendy Lian often has to hustle them away from tables when they linger too long-or at least she did before the city shut down dine-in service on March 16. It’s also become a mecca for the wine community, where the city’s cognoscenti bring bottles from personal collections to taste and share over meals. Spicy Village, located just off Forsyth Park on the northern edge of Chinatown, is among New York City’s most loved BYOB Chinese restaurants, and one of the smallest. The reward for their patience: a table overflowing with big tray chicken, scallion pancakes, hand-pulled noodles, lamb tripe hui mei, mounds of bok choy and too many bottles of wine for a six-top to finish. Guests pressed against the restaurant’s single unoccupied wall and drank Cruse Wine Co.’s sparkling Valdiguié from plastic cups while silently willing diners from their seats. On a Saturday night in early March 2020, even with a reservation and the first flickers of pandemic worry setting in, the wait for one of Spicy Village’s five tables was 45 minutes.
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