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Chinatown's $20M food emporium will open in early 2017
November 15, 2016 • Source: www.bizjournals.com • Posted in: Market News
The long-anticipated opening of Chinatown's massive food emporium is finally within reach: China Live, a 30,000-square-foot market hall, will arrive in January.
Originally set to open early this year, the project was delayed because of the challenges in finding workers and a slowdown in producing the space's custom furniture. The project also required importing hundreds of specialty ingredients from China.
But now the emporium is back on track, and next year will see the opening Chinatown's newest food and cultural destination, at 644 and 660 Broadway.
The concept is the brainchild of husband-and-wife duo George Chen and Cindy Wong-Chen, both longtime restaurateurs in the city. Chen previously opened the James Beard Award-nominated Betelnut in San Francisco and the Shanghai 1930 restaurant. But China Live is his biggest project yet.
The $20 million emporium will span four floors of the fully leased eight-floor building owned byCypress Properties.
The multifaceted emporium includes a retail marketplace with more than 1,500 specialty Chinese and Asian food and cookware items; a 36-seat curated tea parlor; and a 150-seat casual restaurant with a rotating menu. Chen will run the fine-dining restaurant Eight Tables on the second floor, an eight-table restaurant serving a seasonal 12-course Chinese tasting menu for $200 a person.
The second floor will also include a speakeasy-like lounge called the Gold Mountain Lounge, which will have a hidden door.
The third floor will house a 200-person event space, and the rooftop will become another bar, set to open nine months to a year after the rest of the space.
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