“Nobody has tried harder to keep Jing Fong in this space than we have. “The owners of Jing Fong decided that this type of extremely large space is no longer sustainable for their restaurant,” Chu said in a statement. The restaurant owners haven’t paid rent since New York City initially suspended indoor dining in March 2020, according to Eric Phillips of Edelman who was representing the landlord Jonathan Chu. But that will leave dozens of employees without a job and only grim prospects in the city’s struggling food service industry, a union representative said. The restaurant owners said in an Instagram post that they plan to continue delivery and takeout service as well as outdoor dining at its Elizabeth Street site as they look for a new Chinatown location. Last month, the owners of Jing Fong banquet hall announced their plans to close March 7th after 49 years, citing the pandemic-driven loss of revenue and the inability to pay rent on its 20 Elizabeth Street lease. “This is not the end for us, here at Chinatown, as we are actively looking for a new location to move into as soon as possible,” the restaurant said in their Instagram post.The impending closure of one of Chinatown’s largest and most popular restaurants is more than just a loss to the community, but a financial setback for the many employees who depend on their jobs there and a blow to the local economy, said a representative for the restaurant’s union.
As mentioned, they will maintain what’s come to be known as a “ghost kitchen” to service outdoor dining and takeout. Their Upper West Side location will not be affected. Until March 7th, Jing Fong’s dining room will be open Monday – Sunday from 10am to 7:45pm at 25-percent capacity and then 35-percent capacity as of this Friday. The restaurant is known for its lively atmosphere and dim sum carts, both of which have been unable to persist during the pandemic. The new owners moved the restaurant to its current 20,000-square-foot location at 20 Elizabeth Street in 1993. With mounting operating and maintenance expenses, the owners negotiated an ingenious deal with their master plumber, Shui Ling Lam: in exchange for forgiving Jing Fong’s debits, he would become the restaurant’s majority shareholder. In a still-developing Chinatown, amidst the wider economic uncertainty of New York City in the 70s, the original founders soon fell upon difficult times. Jing Fong first opened as a 150-seat dim sum restaurant at 24 Elizabeth Street in 1978. In a statement to Eater NY, third-generation owner and manager Truman Lam said, “With our drastic decline in sales and mounting losses sustained over the course of a year, we needed to make the tough call to close our indoor dining space and redirect our resources in hopes to continue our operations.” He told Eater that sales are down 85 percent year-over-year, amounting to a loss of $5 to 6 million. Indoor dining shuttered from March to September and then again from December to February. Their second location on the Upper West Side saw sales dip 20 percent.Īnd things have continued on a difficult trajectory for the restaurant. A post shared by Jing Fong Restaurant early March, even before New York’s official shut down order, restaurants in Manhattan’s Chinatown, as well as those Chinatowns in Flushing and Sunset Park, were being disproportionately affected due to racist sentiments and the Trump administration’s use of the term “China virus.” On March 2nd, Jing Fong’s marketing director Claudia Leo told the Post that March events were down 75 percent compared to last year and business was down 50 percent.
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