Business Spotlight: Public Village
Kiyomi Wang (right), chef and co-owner of Public Village, and her wife, Kyo Pang (left)
Public Village
23 Essex St.
(646) 476-7501
publicvillagenyc.com
Welcome to Chinatown is excited to spotlight Longevity Fund recipient Public Village, a Sichuanese restaurant that specializes in homemade noodles and Chengdu-style street food. Chef and co-owner Kiyomi Wang opened the restaurant with her business partner, Karen Song, on March 15, 2020 — two days before stay-at-home orders went into effect in NYC. Kiyomi pays homage to her hometown of Chengdu by putting her heart into everything she cooks.
Tell us about your restaurant.
Public Village specializes in homemade noodle dishes and street food from Chengdu (where I am from) and Northern China (where Karen is from). We offer many different types of noodles such as spinach, squid ink and mung bean noodles. Most of our food is vegetarian-friendly — we also have gluten-free and vegan options.
Why did you name your restaurant Public Village?
The restaurant is named after the xiǎo qū — or “little districts” common in China. They are like public villages with courtyards where residents congregate and exchange stories. We wanted to create a space for people to eat, drink, and chat like in the public villages of Sichuan.
Please tell us about yourself.
My mother — who is part of the Yi ethnic minority group — is from Sichuan, and my father is from Northern China. I worked as a model and news anchor before emigrating to New York. I met my wife, Kyo Pang — the founder and executive chef of Kopitiam — during an interview I was conducting for the news station. I moved to the US about four years ago to be with Kyo, and we got married last year.
What are your favorite dishes?
If I had to pick one dish, it would be the Drunken Braised Beef Noodle Soup. It’s a super unique dish: we cook the bone broth for sixteen hours to get the flavor without using any preservatives — it’s very addictive because we add Sichuan peppercorn to it. It comes with homemade squid ink noodles topped with beef that has been braised for six hours to achieve optimal tenderness.
What inspired you to start your own restaurant?
When I first moved here, I had trouble adjusting because I wasn’t familiar with the food in the US. I was really homesick and missed Sichuanese food a lot. To help cure my homesickness, Kyo would take me to all the Sichuan restaurants in NYC. Eventually, I started making some dishes myself.
When I first started out, I would invite friends over for dinner and have them try my dishes. To my surprise, people really enjoyed my food! One day during dinner, Karen asked, “Why don’t we just open our own restaurant?” Maybe it was the red wine we were drinking that night, but I immediately said yes.
“We opened our restaurant during the worst possible time… The Longevity Fund grant and the WtC Block Walk event helped us to pay many utility bills and took some of the burdens off our shoulders.”
What was it like opening a restaurant during a pandemic?
It was scary. Everything happened so quickly. We didn’t have a choice except to open when we did. We walked by the space many times, but it was always occupied by another tenant. Then, one day, we saw a “for rent” sign. Right then and there, we decided to bite the bullet. We toured the space at the end of November 2019 and signed the contract in December 2019. Right after we signed, the pandemic hit.
How has Welcome to Chinatown (WtC) helped your business?
WtC has helped us immensely. We opened our restaurant during the worst possible time. We didn’t qualify for most SBA loans, such as the PPP loan. There wasn’t much traffic in the neighborhood because of the pandemic and also because we were so new. Our landlord was still charging us rent, so we had to pay fixed costs without generating much revenue. The Longevity Fund grant and the WtC Block Walk event helped us to pay many utility bills and took some of the burdens off our shoulders.
“A lot of people come to Public Village to play Mahjong and chit-chat. We’ve become friends with a lot of our neighbors.”
How did you use the Longevity Fund grant?
We primarily used the grant to pay utilities, rent, staff, and outdoor dining buildout. Additional funding can help improve our outside seating because our existing one has been damaged by graffiti and late-night crowds.
What is a fun fact about Public Village?
A lot of people come here to play Mahjong and chit-chat. We’ve become friends with a lot of our neighbors.
How can people support your business?
Call us and come pick up our food instead of using third-party delivery apps. Third-party delivery apps charge up to 30%! Since everything we serve is handmade and very time-consuming to create, our margins on food are low.
To learn more about Public Village’s history and story, visit our volunteer and content writer Alice Huang’s blog, HangryAlice.com, for the full interview.
Chinatown establishments like Public Village are what makes the spirit of our neighborhood. We need your support to keep that spirit alive. Please consider donating to The Longevity Fund, our small business relief fund, or help us spread the word of what’s at stake. Together, we can preserve Chinatown businesses and help keep Chinatown open for business.
Photo Credits: Fuxuan Xin and Public Village
