How Potluck Club reinvents Cantonese cuisine in Manhattan’s Chinatown in New York
From decor to dishes, the founders of Potluck Club and Phoenix Palace have looked to their childhood growing up in Manhattan’s Chinatown
Walk into Potluck Club, a restaurant in Manhattan’s Chinatown in New York, and you will be greeted by a waiter at what looks like an old-fashioned phone booth with a pagoda-style roof.
The decor reflects the Cantonese influences that the Potluck Club founders grew up with in the United States. The booth, for example, is a nod to Chinatowns of the 1970s, when phone booths like this were in frequent operation.
“What you feel, hear and taste in our spaces is our upbringing,” says Cory Ng, one of the restaurant’s co-owners. “Whether it’s the music or the decor, and especially the food, it’s Cantonese-American.”
Potluck Club opened in 2022 during the Covid-19 pandemic, with the idea for the restaurant coming about when everyone was isolating at home.
At the time, chef Zhan Chen – who had spent more than a decade working in Mediterranean restaurants – began experimenting with his home cooking and re-exploring his Cantonese roots through food.