Specialty Food Magazine

To this day, the existing Chinatown restaurants still face increasing racism. Social media is flooded with posts to "Stop Asian Hate" and #SaveChinatown, a movement started by Young. Erik Cheah, of Wok Wok Southeast Asia Kitchen, is scraping by on his delivery business, which he built up before the coronavirus outbreak— otherwise, he doesn't know if he'd still be open. He is tired as he does the job of three people to keep his Malaysian restaurant's lights on, so when he gets a "prank call with racist tones" he just hangs up. "There's no time to deal with that," Cheah says. Other immigrant-owned businesses just feel lost. Guarav Anand, an Indian chef and restaurateur with three Manhattan restaurants and an international catering company, says that his challenges are similar to those of any other chef—except that you don't often hear about the plight of South Asian restaurants. His fine-dining establishments—Moti Mahal Delux, Bhatti Indian Grill, and Awadh—have switched to a delivery-only model. "Indian restaurants don't have a huge demand like Mexican or Italian, and we are still trying to break into the mainstream," Anand says. "I spent time creating these fine dining experiences, and now I'm just another takeout location in NYC. That was the hardest part to accept." Anand says he has watched opportunities for meal prep kits go to celebrity chefs and private grants focus on major culinary organizations, but nothing is specifically geared toward chefs of smaller fine dining restaurants, many of which are owned by solo restaurateurs like himself. It's always been tough, he says, to get an immigrant- owned restaurant's story out there, unless they happen to be French or Italian. It's been no different during the pandemic. Anand went from 19 chefs to three, and he has been running only two of his three restaurants out of one kitchen. One restaurant, Awadh, is being transformed into a new concept, one he hopes will garner the attention of the press. He's thankful his landlord for this Upper West Side spot is supportive of his idea and drive to save his businesses. While he has watched some fellow restaurateurs close their dining rooms, he has seen others creatively exploring options too. "I want to give it a final shot," Anand says. "We need more attention, and we can do that by coming up with something new. If it doesn't go well, at least we tried." and debit transactions in March 2020, implying that they had closed. Meanwhile the P.F. Chang's chain, with 208 restaurants nationwide, received a PPP for millions of dollars and reported that its business doubled during that same month. Then, in November 2020, the Small Business Administration announced a $35 million loan program for minority businesses in the hardest hit areas of New York City. But despite Chinatown being touted in the marketing, its primary Manhattan zip code, 10013, was omitted from the program. "It makes no sense that the neighborhood that was the first to be impacted by COVID was shut out of the program," Young says. "My fear is that if we don't protect Chinese mom and pop restaurants, in the future, we'll only have big chains." • SPECIALTY FOOD SPECIALTYFOOD.COM FOODSERVICE HARDSHIP Stephanie Cain is a freelance writer specializing in food. PHOTO MARK FERRI

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