Episode 1: Jing Fong’s third-generation owner, Truman Lam, fell into the family business after he quit his investment banking job with no landing pad. He started from the bottom—he still makes dumplings and runs deliveries—and found that his love for structure helped organize the business. But Chinatown is changing. Its people and its economic circumstances aren’t what they were in 1978, when Truman’s grandfather opened the first of three Jing Fong locations in Chinatown. The small dim sum restaurant grew to its iconic 800-seat banquet hall in the 80s, a neighborhood landmark, but shrunk to its current, more intimate setting on Elizabeth Street when COVID-19 upended the industry. Truman’s shot at success resets every day. Keeping a family business afloat, especially one beloved by its community, is no easy feat. It’s a daily exercise in humility, hustle, and perseverance, one that Truman and his family approach head on.
Episode 2: Restaurateur Cory Ng was born and raised in New York City’s Chinatown, along with the childhood friends with whom he runs two restaurants, Potluck Club and Phoenix Palace. They grew up with immigrant parents, respecting and carrying on their grit and determination to build a better life for the next generation. However, without seeming too righteous, they simply saw the neighborhood change in real time and felt doing nothing about it—or worse, relocating—wasn’t their path. With an ageing old guard and long-run businesses literally closing up left and right, they took a big risk, grabbed that torch, and opened their first Cantonese American restaurant in 2022. The reaction was instant and gratifying. Its success led to an even bigger decision: what to do next. Options to franchise or open in Brooklyn came up in conversation. Instead, they planted their flag even deeper in Chinatown, and Phoenix Palace was born late last year. But they weren’t going to do the same thing twice. Learn how Cory and his friends are blazing the trail for Chinatown’s future, out of love and respect to all who came before them and the generations to come.
These episodes are part of The Encore, a series from VICE and Toyota about Asian American culinary talent who continue to “call their shot” at their dreams amid a life of trial and error.
Client: VICE x Toyota
Director: Michael James Murray
Editor/Sound Design: Sarah Krusen
