Cold Sprite noodles with chili oil available at the new Mission Chinese pop-up.
Photo: Grub Street
Does time heal? Last we heard, all was not well at Danny Bowen’s Mission Chinese. The East Broadway and Bushwick locations closed in 2020 and 2022, respectively, under the shadow of reports that they were “nightmares” to work at. (The San Francisco location is still open, but Bowen is not involved.) Bowen seems to be moving on. These days, he Minced And he even appeared in a Supreme campaign.
Long before I donned the plastic bib of a restaurant critic, I ate at the Mission’s old New York location (and once in San Francisco). I was initially delighted, but eventually wore myself out. By the time of Bushwick, the Mission was more like a rave than a restaurant, with neon lights bouncing around the place and karaoke blaring at ear-splitting volumes. Maybe I was too old, or maybe the Mission hadn’t grown up. Either way, those visits dwindled.
And now this summer, the Mission is back. Quietly (sort of), temporarily (maybe). From Wednesday through Sunday evenings through July 31, the Mission will be at Cha Kee on Mott Street, cooking up mostly classics. Bowen returned to the kitchen each night with chef Patty Lee and Cha Kee’s staff, who got a crash course in the ethos and cuisine of the Mission. Cha Kee will run its own breakfast and lunch service, then transform into the Mission in the evenings. A sign with a carryout photo menu of Bowen’s favorite Chinese dishes will glow from the back wall, but otherwise the restaurant’s appearance will be much the same as usual.
When I returned to Mission Key (if I may say so myself), I realized I missed the place. We felt like we had seen each other better during our time apart. On a recent Friday night, the room was packed and bustling. A birthday dinner, bear-ish grey-haired man with beard, hot woman: Social no, But of a calmer, more focused kind. The drinks list that once fueled the party has been pared down to mostly just a few batch cocktails and Tsingtao beer. Dishes that were once Mission District icons, like Chongqing wings and Kumbao pastrami, are back. It’s like the Bushwick-chased authors of the essay “Why I Left New York” have come back for penance. And like those authors, it’s good to see them again. These are great ideas, great dishes, powerful things that burst onto the scene and burned hot and fast. A friend of mine who lives in Chinatown (over 6 feet tall, Alaska-born, former forest firefighter) used to frequent the East Broadway location and remembers one time the wings were so spicy that it gave him a nosebleed.
Here are some fun new additions: Jackie’s Sprite Noodles is a quintessential Mission flavor: bold and irresistibly bad for you. Jackie, one of the Mission’s hosts, is a big fan of Flushing’s Haidilao (a China-based chain and home of Dancing Noodles), where the noodles are made chilled with Korean cider. Here, Sprite is added to the “fizzy dressing,” giving the chilled, chili-oil-covered noodles a bit of a tang. I found it too sweet, but what about you? do not have Want to try the Sprite noodles? Go ahead, and try the new crispy beef “Louie,” braised for four hours and finished with umami-sweet soy caramel and Sicilian orange oil, or the cumin lamb ribs seasoned with dates. As a vegetarian, I was a little worried, but she agreed (is that a common occurrence?). The “addictive cabbage salad” is addictive, whatever the hell is in its “secret seaweed dressing,” and the shiso fried rice, buried under a mountain of shredded shiso, was basically hearty and herb-scented.
Will Mission return on a more permanent basis? For now, that’s unclear. Cha Kee’s owners have invited Bowen to give it another go. “When we closed the last Mission Chinese Food location, I knew I’d never come back,” he told me in an email. “I’m happy to be back and I’m not ruling anything out at this point. I’m so honored to be cooking in this city again and will never take it for granted.”
For now, it’s good to be in town. A little older, a little (hopefully) wiser, a little calmer, sure. But not invulnerable. I bring the forest firefighter back, digging into a dish of triple-fried bacon, peppercorn poppies and mochi with yuba. His eyes are popping out of his head. “My nose is going to bleed,” he says.
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