52 newyork| september14–27, 2020
protocolsHaoNoodle’s ZhuRongonReopeningin China—and on SixthAvenue“I loveNew York,butit’s just a differentsituation.”byadamplattC
hongqing-bornzhurongruns 12 restaurantsat variouslevelsofcapac-
ity anddistressinChinaandtheU.S.—twoofthemhereinNewYork(the
HaoNoodlebranchesinChelseaandGreenwichVillage)andanothertenin
majorcitieslikeShanghai,Hangzhou,andBeijing.We sat downwithher
recentlyinthedarkened,deserteddiningroomofHaoNoodleandTeaon
lowerSixthAvenuetogetheruniqueperspectiveonthedifferentapproachestothe
covidcalamity inChinaandNewYorkCity. Shetalkedabouthowherbusinesses
inbothcountrieshavebeenaffected(hint:Thingsareanawfullotbetterrightnow
backhome),howthelocalgovernmentsindifferentcitieshavegoneaboutdealing
(ornotdealing)withfraughtissueslike testingandcontact tracing,andhowwhen
it comestothemostfraughtissueofallfortherestaurantcommunity—indoor
dining—acertainmayorofa certaingreat Americancity didn’t seemtocareat all.PhotographbyPoupayJutharatPinyodoonyachetfoodSo are your restaurants up and running
in China? Yes, all of them are busy again, no
masks, no distancing, and only Beijing is
below the kind of capacity we were doing
before the government shut everybody
down in late January. I have ten restaurants
in China—two in Hangzhou, a large city
west of Shanghai; six in Shanghai itself;
and two in Beijing. We shut them all down
on January 28 on government orders,
about a week after the Wuhan lockdown. I
was in Beijing visiting family for the Chi-
nese New Year, and we thought the govern-
ment was being a little rash at the time. I
flew back to New York three days later. I
thought New York was going to be safe!
What’s been the biggest difference
between the Chinese government’s
response to this crisis and what you’ve
seen here in New York? Well, obviously in
China, the government—and in our case,
the restaurant regulations have come
mostly from local city governments—has
been very direct, very strict, very organized,
where I would say here in New York, which
might be the most “organized” city in the
USA, it’s been the opp I 0
employees at my resta ba e.
Most of them stay in dormitories, which is
very common in China. Everybody got their
temperature checked in the dorm twice a
day, and the rooms were cleaned on a daily
basis. We paid them for two months and
purchased three months’ worth of ingredi-
ents so our employees could come into the
restaurants and cook for themselves. Then
they would go back to the dorm because
many of them are from other cities in China
and couldn’t go home.
That sounds a little different from the
situation here in New York. We were
lucky here in New York at first. We got the
PPP loan very quickly. In China, there was
no PPP. The banks gave many restaurants
favorable rates on loans, but others didn’t
get them so it’s been very harsh, just like
here, and lots of places have gone under.
But for those of us in New York who are
trying to stay in business, I’m sorry, our
PPP loan was five months ago, and noth-
ing has changed. In China, after two and a
half months, we were open for business,
and people were coming back to eat.
What are the inside-dining regulations
like in China? It’s different in different cit-
i d g has been the harshest,
be hey had another outbreak
and had to close down again. All of ourtables were eight feet apart at the begin-
ning; only two people were allowed at each
table at first. Now we are mostly at full pre-
covid capacity. Everyone has a WeChat
app, which gives a green light if you’ve
tested negative and have no temperature,
and everyone has to show their green bar
codes before they sit down. Our servers all
wear masks, but these days customers
don’t. Last month, business was 20 per-
cent better in Hangzhou and Shanghai
than before the lockdown. I think it’s
because there was so much pent-up
demand. After being locked in their apart-
ments, people wanted to eat again.
Looking at the crowded outdoor scene
around town, I think people want to eat
again in New York, too. I was surprised by
how quickly our customers came back in
China, but here in New York, I’m not so
sure. Some of that is our particular situa-
tion. We used to have many Chinese stu-
dents here as regular customers; they are
all back in China now. We used to have
many Chinese tourists; they’re gone now.
Staff are hard to get back for many rea-
sons, but I think some don’t want to work
because they’re waiting for that extra
unemployment check. When we did a
deep cleaning of this dining room the
other day, I did it myself—wiped the walls,
scrubbed the floors. Back home, we had
managers and teams all ready to start
scrubbing when the government said we
could open our dining rooms again.
How do you feel now that our state
government has given the green light to
open New York’s dining rooms? I’m an
optimistic person, so I’d have to say I’m
happy, and yes, I’m optimistic for the
future. When we reopened in China, the
regulations were the same—25 percent
capacity, tables many feet apart—so I
know if everyone is careful, it’s a plan that
can work. At the same time, I’m a little sur-
prised it took so long to happen. For a
while I was thinking, Does the mayor have
enemies in the restaurant business? Is he
trying to punish us? I love New York, but I
think it’s just a different situation com-
pared to the very strict policies back home.
My housekeeper’s mother here got sick
from covid a few months ago. Happily, she
recovered, but did the government contact
her? Did they come to do tracing? In
China, she would have been put in quaran-
tine immediately. All of her friends would
have been tested. The bar codes on her
phone would have been checked again and
again. Here in the USA? Nothing hap-
pened. Nobody seemed to care. ■Edited by
Rob Patronite and
Robin Raisfeld