Let me begin thusly: I like Chinese food, but I will always love the Shun Lee Palace.
The NY Sun ran an article yesterday noting that white-tablecloth Chinese restaurants here in New York are dying a slow death. Only a small handful of them remain, Shun Lee Palace among them.
Shun Lee, of course, has long been one of my favorite places in New York. It’s not scene-y now, and to be honest, it probably wasn’t scene-y when I ate there as a kid. Even I don’t eat there often, so it’s hardly a surprise that it’s “full of old people” these days.
One quote in the article, from a real estate broker, is telling:
"Chinese food is out of vogue," he said. "It contains a lot of sugar, and more and more health-minded and calorie-conscious New Yorkers are looking to alternative dining."
I doubt the issue is health. For people with too much money on their hands (of which there are quite a few in New York), there’s no wow factor in a Chinese restaurant, even a nice one like Shun Lee. Besides, Shun Lee can hardly charge $25 a pop for dumplings or sesame noodles, no matter how delicately they are prepared.
Meanwhile, Nobu, or Masa, or any other sushi temple that’s opened of late, can charge astronomical sums for omakase menus, all while spinning yarns about how the fish is flown in from the moon or that their sea urchin is so rare that it can only be caught by blind Shinto monks twice a year. The best way for these Chinese places is they figure out how to bilk Wall Street types just like these Japanese. I, for one, would approve such an endeavor.
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