Friday, September 30, 2011

Once in a lifetime groove...



Yo! So, there's going to be news about Baohaus Rivington closing. Don't be sad. It's part of the plan... When you see what we have coming at Baohaus 2 next month, you will doodie your pants. It may or may not involve beef noodle soup and soup dumplings, I'm just sayin... Evan and I had to make some choices about where to devote our time because right now it's just the two of us and staff at BH2 running the business. We're looking to build the team but we have so many things on our plate, we have to focus.

If you ask people, it was a really special run at that subterranean spot. Every thing about it was unique from the brick on the right side, the weird steps going down, the music, the food, the style of service... I don't think there was a restaurant that did things quite like we did. For better or worse, I hope people look back on it and say: "That kid brought a whole new hustle to the neighborhood." Red tops, yellow tops, Baohaus blue tops. I don't expect people to always like or support what I'm doing, but you can't say I don't keep it provocative. From the first days with Asa, Kate, Simon (who now owns Macaron Parlour), Ning, Victoria, Joy, and Sarah, it was poppin'. We were a bunch of kids with minimal experience who made it happen and I'm proud of what we did.

This is probably the worst blog post I've ever written, but I just don't know how to encapsulate every thing that's happened there in 20 months. It felt like yesterday was Christmas Eve 2009 and Lia Bulong was waiting outside to be the first customer. Thank you to every one. John Todd, Ryan Kalaith, Lia, Huskyg upstairs, the pregnant chick that threw green tea at me, i fux wit you. There's so many people I can't remember every one's names but THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU. None of this happens if you guys didn't choose to support a non-traditional business that tried to flip the script on these mother fuckers. No matter where we are we gonna keep it funky for yall, believe that.

Sunday night, after the Redskins game of course... Evan and I will work the last night shift at Baohaus starting at 6pm. We'll be doing beef noodle soup as well, so come by for that. Noodles are good luck. For us, it's the end of an era... Once in a Lifetime Groove.

11 comments:

  1. I really hope it's beef noodle soup that you're adding to the menu. Please make it with a really beefy broth and chewy (QQ) noodles. Make Taiwan proud. ;) I can't wait to try out the 14th St location.

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  2. Part of what "plan" exactly??

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  3. There's no plan, kids a joke. Opened up the restaurant with daddy's money, can't keep two spots running at once. And restaurant is a stretch--its a fucking steamed bun shop, dude.

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  4. I was just in NYC for a two-day work trip from Seattle, and tried to walk to the Rivington location after enjoying your posts and pictures of pork buns for months. Lost steam around Canal and Broadway ... If I had known the original location was closing, I would have made it! Keep up the good work - from one non-traditional Taiwanese-American to another!

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  5. Damn man. I'll come by Union Square, but I'm really gonna miss the original spot. Sad.

    PS fuck the haters.

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  6. just cuz ur scared doesn't mean people wont' stop posting the truth here and other places.

    ur scared now. not scared enough though.

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  7. We will miss you in the neighborhood.

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  8. expensive / not-authentic / non-filling bao (would cost $20+ to fill you up)

    Go to one of the stalls on Main St in Flushing for better/more authentic bao at literally 1/4 the price.

    This operation has mild success because people don't know better and things it's reasonable to pay $4 for something that should cost $1. Understand the cost of rent is high, but that's too much for what it is.

    Pork belly bao melts in your mouth (with 2 bites) and gets a bit of fanfare, but you know what - pork belly tastes amazing in ANYTHING!

    Give more for the money so you don't feel ripped off / hungry after going, and I would be going and telling my people to go a lot more then we have.

    Good luck w/14th St and the new soups.

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  9. Well it wasn't a success because asians who know better will eat elsewhere that's way cheaper and better quality. His only business was from the uninitiated/personal friends and combine that with the absolute worst choice of location and you get closure LOL.

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