Eddie Huang is bringing back Baohaus — his seriously fun restaurant serving bao and his original beef noodle soup. The chef, restaurateur, writer, and provocateur will reopen his cult-favorite Taiwanese restaurant at 97 St. Marks Place near First Avenue, with plans to debut before the end of February.
Huang closed the original Baohaus in the East Village in 2020, as the pandemic started, after more than a decade. He then spent time in Los Angeles and Taiwan, where he wrote and directed his 2021 film, Boogie. He has since returned to New York, where he cooks at the Flower Shop on the Lower East Side, writes a Substack, and co-hosts the podcast, Canal Street Dreams, with his wife, Natashia Perrotti.
When the St. Marks spot became available, he couldn’t pass it up. “A location and an opportunity fell in my lap that was just like perfect for Baohaus, so I had to do it,” Huang says.
This new Baohaus comes together through a quintessentially New York chain of connections. Huang got connected to the space through DJ Stretch Armstrong, who put him in touch with Russell Steinberg, the performer and restaurateur who had been operating Cecilia in the former Yaffa Cafe space. Huang is partnering with Steinberg and Roman Grandinetti, who owns Regina’s Grocery and other spots.
The menu will feature Baohaus classics: the Chairman bao and Birdhouse bao (pork belly and fried chicken, respectively), the pork and sauerkraut noodle soup, and beef noodle soup, which Huang says the restaurant “became known for, but then got too busy to do.” It’s “the same beef noodle soup that Ligaya Mishan reviewed [for the New York Times ] like fifteen years ago now,” Huang says.
The new space will also expand on the original. Dinner revolves around an endless bucket of sweet potato xīfàn (porridge) on each table. “We give you unlimited carbs, and then you order any version of small plates,” Huang says. As the night progresses, it will stay open late, inspired by a style of restaurant found across Taiwan.
Many of the dishes will also utilize the grill. “Instead of velvetizing with cornstarch and egg whites and then tossing it in a bunch of oil,” he says, he’s using the grill to break down ingredients, cooking items like wagyu flank steak to resemble “carne asada, but then toss it with the things that you would expect of, like, a Hunan beef.” It’s a technique Huang developed while cooking on his Big Green Egg in Los Angeles backyards, creating a smokier flavor in his stir fries, he tells Eater.
Open for lunch and dinner, the menu is divided into small plates (like schmaltzy snow pea shoots, mumbo-fried cauliflower, and spicy preserved radish and peanut stir-fry), medium plates (including Iberico mapo tofu, secreto and tofu with peppers, and bricked chicken with peanut sesame), and large plates (grilled branzino with pickled pepper sauce, oil-poached halibut with soy bean crisp, and Sichuan-roasted lamb shoulder). Starting in April, the restaurant will offer a $500 whole goose noodle soup dinner for four that includes four small dishes and soup in addition to the bird.
Drinks focus on draft beer and wine, regional wines picks by the glass, “so people can taste around regions and eat different Taiwanese food,” he says. He also wants to prove that people will still hang out after hours. “We want to try to bring back late-night dining, late-night drinking,” he says.