It was a somewhat muted showing compared to 20, when New York took home accolades for the country’s best chef and best new restaurant, two of the Foundation’s most prestigious awards. Grace Young, a cookbook author based in New York City, was previously named humanitarian of the year for her work supporting Chinatowns and Asian American-owned small businesses. The award is given to “locally owned restaurants that have timeless appeal and are beloved regionally for quality food that reflects the character of its community,” according to the Beard Foundation. Prior to the awards on Monday evening, the Foundation named Wo Hop, one of the oldest restaurants in Manhattan’s Chinatown, among the winners of its “America’s Classics” award. Like Dhamaka, the establishment currently sits on Eater’s list of NYC’s 38 most essential restaurants. The Michelin-starred natural wine bar from James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem opened in 2015. Williamsburg’s the Four Horsemen took home the outstanding wine program award. The chef rose to prominence at Adda in Long Island City before opening Semma and Rowdy Rooster in Manhattan. Pandya has emerged as one of the country’s most influential Indian chefs of the last decade for his work at Unapologetic Foods, the Indian hospitality group backed by restaurateur Roni Mazumdar. The title of best chef in New York state was awarded to Chintan Pandya of Dhamaka, who was up against Amanda Cohen of Dirt Candy, JJ Johnson of Fieldtrip, Ayesha Nurdjaja of Shuka, and Junghyun Park of Atomix. Other notable restaurants taking advantage of the block's new seating areas, or offering tables on closed-down Doyers Street, include Hop Kee, Nom Wah Tea Room, Tasty Hand-Pulled Noodles, and Ping's.The James Beard Awards winners for 2022 were announced on Monday evening, and New York City chefs and restaurants took home two awards. And everything is served in takeout containers, which is not only safe but also efficient when you're ready to leave and still have like three more meals worth of food still to be eaten. Also on the table was a container of sticky Cold Sesame Noodles for old time's sake, and Wo Hop's decent Fried Rice, in this case with shrimp.Īs far as pandemic protocols go, there's a comically large bottle of sanitizer at every setting, the staff is 100% masked, those plexiglass shields between tables mostly provide a secure feeling, though the tables are close together. Sesame Chicken with Broccoli wasn't really "hot spicy" as the header promised, but the meat was tender and the dish had some kick. Roast Pork with Chinese Mushrooms featured large chunks of butter-soft fungi and a glutinous sauce. Not wanting to hog my precious four-top, I chose quickly. And although the hours are truncated, the Wo Hop menu still runs more than 250 items long. There's a certain nostalgia at play when eating here, with all those delightfully borderline sweet dishes that dominated the scene when I first started coming to Chinatown in the 1970s. The project also has a long list of corporate sponsors.Īfter a fifteen minute wait I secured a seat at Wo Hop and ordered up a feast. The materials were all contributed by the Rockwell Group, whose participation is part of their larger effort to help NYC restaurants survive the pandemic, working here with the New York Hospitality Group, the Chinatown Partnership, and the Department of Transportation. New tables and chairs, plexiglass shields, barriers thick with plant life, bright coloring, plenty of umbrella coverage - these are among the most pleasant such dining areas I've seen in the Covid era. You can get takeout of course, or delivery, but the real move is to come down here to Chinatown and stretch out in one of the handsomely designed outdoor seating spaces that now line the block. You may not be able to stagger down the staircase at 2:30 a.m., nor gawk at the vast collection of fading photos that cover the basement restaurant's walls, but the original Wo Hop (the neighborhood's second oldest restaurant, behind Nom Wah) and the younger Wo Hop City, are now back in action, serving their classic, Americanized Chinese fare on Mott Street.
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