After over two decades of existence, Sun Wah Bar-B-Q is doing something that, in this climate, is nearly unheard of for a restaurant to do. It’s moving. Thankfully, the owners are only carting themselves from their longtime Argyle Street outpost, taking the racks of barbecued ducks that dangle in the windows with them and moving to their new space around the corner on Broadway.
Often, moves for restaurants can either be lethal or help infuse further new life into an establishment - so what is planned for the new Sun Wah? Owner Kelly Cheng – who, along with her siblings, took over the restaurant's operations from her parents just months ago - talked with Centerstage about ducks full of air, saving cash where you can, and why anyone would close on a Thursday.
It seems that in just the recent history of you and your siblings having taken over, there's been something of a revitalization of the restaurant. Do you agree with that?
Yeah, because my brother and my sister and I, we're more or less enthusiastic to say the least! [laughs] Coming in, we wanted things different and because we were trying different things, a lot of customers were willing to try with us and they thought, "that's kinda cool." And new people became returning customers and the old ones say, "hey, they're doing some pretty cool stuff, let's go have food their more often." That's why it's been a little more...rowdy! To say the least.
With Sun Wah being in your family for so long, is there a lot of pressure to perform now that you're in charge?
I think for a lot of people it would be a lot of pressure, but for us, like we said, we've grown up with it. This is something that's kinda second nature. There are some things that we're learning because of inexperience, and then there are things that we didn't know previously because we weren't the ones in charge. But for the most part, I think the pressure is more [what] we give ourselves because we don't want to disappoint our parents. But for the most part, no. Because we've been in this thing long enough and we know the place so well and we know our customers well enough that we don't think that it's a very difficult job. And we love it! And that's the most important part - we really really do love our job. And it really shows through.
Right now, restaurants are closing - not expanding and moving. What prompted the decision to change spaces?
We felt that to move really was the best option. Our space is just not big enough. With us kids taking over, we wanted things a little different, and in the space we're in, to remodel would have taken too much time to close down and then remodel it...and then open up again, we would lose much more business and customers and employee loyalty. We had to think through all that, and we didn't like that idea.
What can your customers look forward to seeing at the new space?
We can put in parties, small-sized parties of 100-150 people. At the new place, because it'll be bigger we can add in even more traditional types or street-type food that we've been wanting to try for a while. With the amount of space we've been able to expand - even though our menus are already huge we can put even more things on there.
I think the most recognizable feature of Sun Wah for passersby would be the BBQ duck in the windows, but I don't think a lot of people understand the difference between Chinese barbecue and, say, American Southern barbecue? Can you explain it?
Because of the way our foods are prepared. That's one of the differences in, for example, let's call it American or Southern barbecue. Whereas American Southern barbecue relies heavily on the sauce during and after cooking, we rely more on the finished product. Because of our culture, really - our culture dictates that when the finished product sits on the table, the food is ready to be eaten and it doesn't need anything else added to it. You sit down, you pick up the chopsticks, you eat and that's it. If we're eating at home, for example - there isn't any leeway for us to get up and say "Mom, I need ketchup. Mom, I need soy sauce." Mom's already seasoned everything and that's how Chinese cooking truly should be. When it's on your table, it's ready to eat. You really don't need to season it with anything else. Well, whereas American barbecue..."oh, it's a little bland, let's put on some more sauce..." The sauce is what makes the meat taste great, versus the meat already tastes great by itself for us.
Sun Wah has become pretty renowned around the city for Beijing duck, which includes multiple courses of bird in bun, entree and soup form. How much duck do you go through in the course of a week?
[laughs] The estimates have come in between 800 and a thousand ducks a week, 6 days a week. It's not always the case, of course. There are weeks and days where it's extremely slow, but for a holiday? That would be easily managed.
I understand that part of the process of preparing Beijing duck is filling the animal with compressed air and inflating it - what does that do for the cooking process?
If you don't do it, it's impossible to cook the duck. I mean, not impossible - but the duck looks extremely ugly. [laughs] When you're done, there probably would be no juice inside, the duck would be completely flat, the entire sternum would be collapsed upon itself, and the skin would probably be pretty much mashed to the meat. [laughs] That's really the main reason why air needs to be there - it's not just part to separate the skin, it's also part of the cooking process. It helps it along.
One of the more interesting things about your business is that you've chosen to be closed on Thursday, instead of the usual Monday or Tuesday that restaurants close. Why did you choose that day, and will that carry over to the new location?
We will carry that over - we all need a day off. The reason it's on Thursday is a lot of other restaurants and chefs are off on Mondays, and they come to eat on Monday. They actually come to Argyle to eat on Mondays. Especially the Chinese ones. On Tuesday, Hon Kee, our friends down the street, are closed. They've been like that for many, many years.
So when we decided in looking at our business that we needed a day off, we actually picked Thursday because that's one of our slower days, and it wasn't a day where our competitor was off. We actually do good business when they're closed, so...we figured we'd return the favor on the day that we're closed, that they usually end up with all of our business when we're not around.
I'm continuously amazed at your ability to feed people so much and charge them so little. How do you manage to keep your prices so low, and can you continue that after an expensive move to a new place?
At the new place we hope to be able to keep the same ideas. The same set of ideals that we can be inexpensive for people. Mostly it's that we want to stay at a well-priced range, but if we add more quality ingredients then obviously the price will go up a little bit more. But we manage because we go out and buy the ingredients ourselves. We pick everything ourselves. We don't depend on a food source or a distributor. Obviously there are certain things that you have to have a distributor for, but we're the kind of people you can tell, "Hey! Vegetables are cheap at such-and-such a place!" And we're not the first ones there but we're probably the third or fourth ones there.
And it's kind of a general rule in our family that we tend to be spendthrift. You know, don't leave the gas running if you're not cooking anything. Don't leave the water running, "save the environment” kind of mentality. That's how we manage to keep prices lower. And the customer is very willing to work with us on that. And we don't spend thousands of dollars on furniture and decorations - people walk in knowing they don't want that.
During those Thursdays off, what or where do you like to eat when you're not in your own restaurant?
It is only one day off - and if given the choice to eat anywhere or eat anything, I actually prefer to cook at home. Not that I don't like eating out - I would try just about everything. We'll try other cuisines - but given the choice and the time and who's going to be around, we like eating at home because we can control how fresh our food is and we can decide exactly what we want to eat and how we're going to cook it. And plus, it's also experimentation - if we're sitting there going "hey, this'll work! Let's try that at the restaurant!" That's really why we like that the best.
Sun Wah Bar-B-Q reopens at 5041 N. Broadway at the end of September or early October.
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