Reopenings

Chinatown Change: Two Pho Openings, and Dim Sum Goes Green

Photo: Shanna Ravindra

With the Luckyrice Festival in full swing as of last night’s opening party, your mind may just be on Chinatown. Well, in addition to the two bakeries and the dim-sum-palace bar that opened in recent weeks, you can add this to the fray: Bowery Boogie notices that Pho Grand has reopened a few weeks after a fire closed down the block, and Serious Eats encounters Pho Cho Ben Thanh, a new Vietnamese spot at 76 Mott Street. Commenters are lukewarm about the newbie.

Meanwhile, change may be coming to the neighborhood’s existing restaurants: According to a press release, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver is announcing today “a new cooking oil recycling program in Chinatown that collects restaurant waste oil and recycles it into biodiesel fuel for cars and trucks, home heating systems, and generators. Jing Fong Restaurant, the first business to volunteer to participate in this initiative, will have its cooking oil collected today by the Doe Fund’s waste oil pump truck.” Given how much oil those dim-sum palaces go through, we’re assuming today’s yield could fuel a flight to Guangdong.

Pho Grand Has Reopened [Bowery Boogie]
Pho Cho Ben Thanh Open in Former Custard King, Sweet ‘n’ Tart Space [Serious Eats NY]

Chinatown Change: Two Pho Openings, and Dim Sum Goes Green