Tell us about your restaurant?

Tolo is a restaurant serving Chinese fare that is a reflection of my international upbringing. It's food that I want to eat but might find it hard to experience in New York City. The restaurant is named after the harbor in Hong Kong where I spent part of my childhood. There's a lot of recreating food memories and excitement in being able to share that!   

What do you feel about the neighborhood rebrand “Dimes Square”?

People can call it what they want...but when they ask us where we are, and when we think about the vendors and purveyors we work with, we say Chinatown!

Giant list of wines, do you think of dishes that can pari well with those? vice versa, or both?

It has been SO FUN to be able to shape a dining experience that showcases Chinese food alongside wine. When we have guests that want to do a wine dinner or special event, we create a menu and can put up specific dishes that complement the wine that they want to drink. We do daily pours where we open up bottles that are unexpected or rare to really highlight pairings off our menu.

What is your favorite thing on the menu?

If you really want to get a sense of who I am, my favorite thing on the menu is the duck breast. The dish is rooted in French technique while the flavor profile is Chinese. I love being able to fuse my training in the French culinary arts (which is what I studied) with nostalgic dishes from my childhood. The duck really represents how that can come together in a beautiful way.

What is the most iconic NYC restaurant in your eyes?

A loaded question! Tolo is closed on Sunday and Monday so I like to use Mondays as my "dining out" day to catch up on the dining scene. I find that I like to check-in on what I consider to be reliable, consistent restaurants perhaps more so than the "newest" spots. In Chinatown, some of these titans are Great NY Noodletown and Wo Hop. So dependable for Cantonese classics. One other iconic spot that isn't too far away from Tolo is Russ & Daughters - bagel & lox makes me instantly think NEW YORK.

YOUTUBE

Howtown is a new youtube channel digging into the questions “how do they know…” and this week’s episode was fascinated as they looked into how we figure out the calories of what we eat Watch Here

PODCAST

The Waveform podcast from the MKBHD is a must listen to every week if you are a tech nerd like myself! This week they took a look at all the new Google Pixel devices, and I am particuiary excited about the new Pixel 9 Fold! LISTEN HERE