Zen Yai To Open On Grand Street

WILLIAMSBURG – Bryan Chunton has kept almost the entirety of his old staff, over ten people, since the original location of his restaurant Zen Yai Noodle & Coffee – a Vietnamese Cafe – burned down last year in Sunnyside, Queens. He jokes that maybe it’s his good looks that keep them around.

“It’s a good team that we had, they say ‘okay I’ll find a job, when you’re ready, let me know’, and when we call them back, they come back,” Cunton said. In addition to those working other jobs in the meantime, he has also kept a few staff members on the payroll. “Some staff, I still pay them even though they don’t work for me. I still pay them, keep them, help them out. So I don’t think it was a loss, it’s all investment,” he said.

Chunton is in the process of reopening Zen Yai, this time on Grand Street in Williamsburg. He’s just waiting on one last meter inspection, he says, that otherwise they are ready to open in early July.

“We were moving in here anyway, before the fire, so I had to sign the lease. I mean, I hesitated a little bit because we just lost our main store,” Chunton said.

The new Williamsburg location of Zen Yai will have the capacity to seat 70 people, and will serve many of the original dishes from Sunnyside, as well as retain the original chef, Mukda Sakulclanuwat.

Here, however, Chunton says that they will soon have a liquor license, something that they didn’t have in the old location. He also plans to serve coffee, tea, and matcha from the small bar at the front of the space.

“In Sunnyside, we were doing strictly Vietnamese and some Thai dishes, things that I enjoyed when I was little, which my parents made for me and things like that. I just do things that I like and I think that makes money, you know, that sells, so it did well in Sunnyside. Unfortunately, the fire,” Chunton said. “Here [in Williamsburg] I’m doing a little bit into Southern Thai.” Among these dishes is a Thai “version” of Zen Yai’s traditional Vietnamese pho, with different noodles and broth, called kanojeen.

“I offer a lot of different things. I have Thai food, mostly street food, casual, comfort food,” said Chunton, who will also be serving the Eat Gai dishes (his other restaurants in Manhattan) at the Williamsburg location.

The inside of the new space was designed exclusively by Chunton, who says he designs all of his restaurants.

“The theme of the restaurant I was trying to achieve was farm but beach, so along the way, I don’t know, it just happened,” he laughs. The mural on the right-hand wall was done by local Thai artist, Sarasin (@saasin on Instagram), and the light fixtures were made by Chunton out of laundry baskets and stick rice cookers.

Chunton still hopes to one day return to Sunnyside, but cites rising rents and the fact that his original space still isn’t cleaned up as reasons for the delay. He guesses that it will be around two years.

“I love this neighborhood. I came here before this whole area was booming. I actually was here when Planet Thai was here, and I was looking for space back then, a long time ago, back when I was very young. I was always interested in Williamsburg,” Chunton, who lives in Queens, said.

Zen Yai is located at 208 Grand Street in Williamsburg, between Driggs and Bedford. You can find them on Instagram @zenyainyc. Tentative opening Early July 2019.