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than they’re steamed and consumed because the skin starts to break down. There’s a showroom, an open part of the kitchen that’s behind a panel of glass. It’s a large open room where our three or four dim sum chefs are folding soup dumplings throughout the dinner service. Other than that, it’s a closed kitchen. Chinese kitchens tend to be closed because woks when they’re turned on -- when you’re in the space and there’s no music and there’s not people talking at dinner – are like a jet engine. You can hear it throughout the space. Our layout was another beast to tame, we cut it into thirds. We’ve got the lounge in the front third, the bar in the middle third, and the dining room in the back third. I designed what we called “the wood portal.” They put 2x4s of bamboo randomly perpendicular to the wall so they’re
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sticking out of the wall and the ceiling on both sides like a frame. They spaced the bamboo out every six to eight inches and so we got what we call the portal. It sits right over the entire bar area. The front area to the back area has this distinctive separate feeling because of the bar. And we wanted this feeling because we wanted it to be a place where you get that really quick al fresco dim sum and drink. And then in the back is where you have your full dining experience – which I think is what Soho looks 16 like. I can just pop in for a drink; sit there in front 1of a window. That’s what 5 we’re trying to be. We were very ada14 mant about creating a neighborhood 13 experience. 12 Ultimately, the reason restaurants 11
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ing neighborhood, but it’s not quite there yet for this type of cuisine, for this price point. So we found a neighborhood in Soho that has the best of everything, most notably, great residents. The residents we’ve met, they’ve lived here 25, 30 years. A lot of them bring their kids into the restaurant. We get a great mix of tourists and New Yorkers also, shopping all four seasons of the year. In terms of the kitchen, Chef Ken sketched out a rough idea of what a kitchen of our design would look like. He spec’d out the things he wanted and the arrangement he wanted and they fit it into the space. It really was a marriage between the two visions. But the main thing we wanted to accomplish coming here was a showroom for the Dim Sum folding. All of our soup dumplings are made to order. They must be made no earlier
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and very demanding customers. He brought with him six other chefs, all of whom had never left China before to come to New York to open Pinch. So we have a team of seven from China and hopefully many more coming down the road. We didn’t really have to tweak much to begin making it in New York. The base of what we do, our star attraction, is the Dim Sum and the Dim Sum is well regarded throughout the world. Din Tai Fung has close to 100 locations throughout mostly East Asia. Now with the location I had been looking for a space for a little over a year. We looked everywhere, from Mid-Town, West and East, through the East Village, Greenwich Village, Chelsea and we narrowed it down to a few places. Chelsea was one that we really liked, it’s an up-and-com-
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60 • April 2017 • Total Food Service • www.totalfood.com
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