Truman Lam, Jing FongвЂ™s third-generation owner, confirmed this. In an e-mailed statement, Jonathan Chu said the restaurant вЂњhasnвЂ™t paid a dimeвЂќ of its base rent in 12 months, which has remained fixed since 1993. The rally was but the first step in this fight to save Jing Fong and save the Chinatown economy.вЂќ He called for government intervention, and said, вЂњFor workers, this is not a done deal.вЂќ Nelson Mar, the president of the 318 Restaurant Workers Union, which represents Jing FongвЂ™s dining room staff, told me, вЂњWe are going to fight the closure with the demands that we have put forward. Among the crowd was John Chen, 60, a head waiter at Jing Fong who has worked at the restaurant for half of his life Tan Li Zhen, a 59-year-old dim sum seller who begged the landlords not to вЂњbreak her rice bowlвЂќ and 52-year-old waiter Chen Liang, who called on the Chus to stop вЂњdestroying Chinatown.вЂќ When they tried pushing into the building to deliver their demands, a policeman blocked the way. On Tuesday, dozens of staffers and anti-gentrification activists protested outside Eastbank, the firm run by Jing FongвЂ™s father-son landlords Alex and Jonathan Chu, accusing them of forcing the restaurant to close. But instead of celebrating a good run, the workers were outside battling for more time. Around 180 workers were on Jing FongвЂ™s payroll its dining room staff was the only one in Chinatown still represented by a union. вЂњThis 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,вЂќ the restaurant said in their Instagram post.Something else was missing from the restaurant that day: the employees.

As mentioned, they will maintain whatвЂ™s come to be known as a вЂњghost kitchenвЂќ to service outdoor dining and takeout.В TheirВ Upper West Side location will not be affected.

Until March 7th, Jing FongвЂ™s dining room will be openВ Monday вЂ“ 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 FongвЂ™s debits, he would become the restaurantвЂ™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,В third-generation owner and manager Truman Lam said, вЂњWith 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.вЂќ He told Eater that sales are down 85 percent year-over-year,В amounting to a loss of $5 to 6 million. Indoor dining shuttered fromВ March to September and then again fromВ December to February.

Their second location on the Upper West Side saw sales dip 20 percent.ДЄnd things have continued on a difficult trajectory for the restaurant. A post shared by Jing Fong Restaurant early March, even before New YorkвЂ™s official shut down order, restaurants in ManhattanвЂ™s Chinatown, as well as those Chinatowns in Flushing and Sunset Park, were beingВ disproportionately affected due toВ racist sentiments and the Trump administrationвЂ™sВ use of the term вЂњChina virus.вЂќ On March 2nd, Jing FongвЂ™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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