Tonii’s — A Mother’s Love, A Brother’s Legacy
Back in September, I got a chance to talk to Liz Yee, owner of Tonii’s Fresh Rice Noodle and grant recipient of The Longevity Fund, for a piece that I wrote for Welcome to Chinatown. I’m so excited to be sharing the full post with all of you on my blog! Liz’s story is incredibly touching, and I would be lying if I said I didn’t shed a few tears during the interview.
Liz started Tonii’s in October 2019 out of love for her family and her children. As the name suggests, Tonii’s serves fresh rice rolls with a variety of toppings along with their famous Kam Hing sponge cakes. Read on to learn more about how the name Tonii’s came to be and how Liz hopes to see the business grow over the years.
Liz and her husband, Brian in front of Tonii’s (PC: Kevin Xiao)
Tonii's Special Rice Roll with Fishballs and Kam Hing sponge cake (PC: Kevin Xiao)
Tell us about your business and who you are. What kind of food do you serve?
Hey! I’m Liz, and I am the owner of Tonii’s Fresh Rice Noodle located at 83 Bayard St. in Chinatown, New York. We’ve been open since October 2019, so about a year now. Our business is a branch of our mother shop, New Kam Hing, located at 118 Baxter St., which is also owned by my family. At Tonii’s, we serve our famous Kam Hing sponge cakes and our fresh assorted topping rice rolls (also known as rice noodles).
What inspired you to start your restaurant?
My family is what inspired me to open Tonii’s. Growing up with my siblings, we always had New Kam Hing as our home base. I would hang out there with my friends after school, and I would work there on the weekends with my brother. We would have family BBQs and holiday parties there as well. Having the store play such a central role in my life when I was growing up made me realize that if I opened a shop of my own, my kids would have a chance to make the same childhood memories I have. Thus, I opened Tonii’s for my kids’ future— so that I could give my kids a home base and, to let them know that no matter what happens, their family is right there.
How did you come up with the name “Tonii’s”?
What most people don’t know is that Tonii’s is named after my daughter; who is named after her uncle (my brother), Tony. Tony passed away in a fire with his girlfriend, Anna, in February 2009. The two i’s in Tonii resemble people figures and are supposed to represent Tony and Anna. I wanted to pay my respects to Tony because he was like a second father figure to me; he was always there for me and my siblings, and he was also always there for my parents. He was a chef, and he had this way with food such that, when you saw him cooking, you could see his passion and see how much time he spent trying to perfect his recipes. By memorializing his legacy in the name “Tonii’s”, I want my kids to know who Tony was, how important he was to our family and how much my siblings and I still try to follow in his footsteps every day.
Tony was the embodiment of family. He taught us that family is everything and that your family will always stand by you. Having Tonii’s as the name of the store gives me the strength to keep it going for my kids’ futures and for Tony himself. Hopefully, he’s watching over the store and looking out for us up there.
Could you tell us about the history behind rice noodles? Where do they come from and why did you choose rice noodles over any other dish?
Rice noodles originated in China and are made by grinding up rice and adding various flours to create a velvet consistency. You then cook the dish by steaming it up, and you can add all kinds of toppings to please everyone in the household.
I chose to focus on rice rolls because my daughter loves them. I remember lining up in front of the food carts in the morning before school and buying them for her for breakfast every day. At one point, she became so picky about food that all she wanted to eat was rice noodles all day, every day. It made me want to share her love of rice noodles with everyone and show people how such a simple dish can create such wonderful memories. I want my customers to be able to say, “I remember that time when I was a kid, my momma used to buy me these rice noodles for me”, so that they can pass their memories along to the next generation.
Tonii's Special Rice Roll with Fishballs and Kam Hing sponge cake (PC: Kevin Xiao)
What are some of your favorite dishes to make from your menu? What were your inspirations behind these dishes?
My favorite dish would have to be the rice roll, of course! It was definitely fun learning how to make it in the beginning, and it was exciting to see all the different choices of toppings.
I also really love our spammiches (spam & egg sandwiches) because they remind me of when my parents used to make them for me and my siblings. Separately, my father loves corn beef— hence why we have the corn beef and egg sandwich on our menu.
When COVID first hit NYC, what kinds of thoughts were running through your head?
When COVID first hit NYC, it made me wonder whether the store was going to survive and how I could keep my family safe. We had first opened only a couple months prior to the pandemic. The only thing I knew was that I was willing to do anything and everything in order to keep this store running because I started it for the sake of my kids.
How have you been faring with the impact of COVID? What are some things that you have been doing to stay open?
We have been doing okay. Most of my staff quit at the beginning of March, so overhead hasn’t been that high since it was mainly just my husband and brother working with me at the time. We did everything in-house, meaning my dad would cut and prep vegetables and meat, and my brother would cook the curry, beef tripe, tea eggs, etc. My husband and I would alternate shifts with our remaining workers to serve customers and make rice noodles and sponge cakes. Between the three of us (my husband, brother and myself), we were at the store every day from 7am - 10pm. In order to increase the flow of business, we extended our open hours and tried to introduce new food options, such as fried rice (we no longer serve fried rice; that was just a temporary thing that we did during the pandemic).
During COVID, we also had the chance to work with Vic and Jen from Welcome to Chinatown to help frontline workers through their Feed Our Heroes initiative, and more recently, by partnering with Feed the Frontlines. The initiative was able to help us get our name out there and brought us some new business. As a result, we were able to keep the remaining staff that we had, and we began to believe that we could overcome this slump.
Tonii’s outdoor dining (PC: Kevin Xiao)
How has the move away from in-person dining towards takeout / delivery impacted your business?
It gave us a chance to step into the digital world. Before COVID, we were only doing in-person dining. We didn’t do any type of delivery. Now, we are on Grubhub, Postmates, DoorDash, Uber Eats and Hungry Panda. These delivery services have helped a lot because we can now serve customers that we would never have been able to reach before.
Any advice you would like to give to other restaurants / small business owners trying to survive during COVID?
My advice to other owners is to not give up and to bring in friends and family to help. Keep trying to push forward. I know that it’s been hard and believe me, I understand completely how exhausted and tiring it is for the mind, body and soul.
I understand that most Chinese people don’t like asking for help, but this is the time to throw that pride away for the sake of saving your legacy. Take it day by day and just try to keep going. We’re at rock bottom already, so the only way to go now is up.
What has been your greatest accomplishment or proudest moment as a restaurant owner? What has been your biggest challenge?
The thing that I’m the most proud of is the fact that everything can be made right inside Tonii’s. In the beginning, I didn’t even know how to make half of the dishes on our menu. I had to rely solely on my staff to keep the restaurant going at one point. Today, we can make everything ourselves! I am proud to say that if anything were to happen again (hopefully not), Tonii’s will definitely stay open.
My biggest challenge has been trying to find the time to spend with my family and balancing my roles as a business owner and a mom. It’s hard because my kids, Tonii (7 year old), Lucas (4 years old) and baby Jaden (16 months old), have to stay in the bakery when I’m at the store due to schools being closed. I’ve had to bring them in as early as seven in the morning and basically leave them there until whatever time we close. They’re essentially stuck in the basement all day— taking naps on a camping cot and doing their remote learning— all while I am around but unable to give them the attention that they want and deserve.
It has also been a struggle trying to find new ways to keep them busy. There have been times when I’ve asked my eldest daughter to stock drinks in the fridge and times when I’ve tasked my son with making sauce cups— just to keep them busy and prevent them from pulling me away from what I had to focus on.
In summary, I feel like I’ve excelled at being a great business owner during this time, but I’ve also been dealing with the mom guilt of putting the store first before my kids.
Tonii’s storefront (PC: Kevin Xiao)
Liz and her husband, Brian (PC: Kevin Xiao)
How has the lack of tourism in the pandemic affected Tonii’s and Chinatown as a whole? Do you believe the challenges of the pandemic caused restaurant and business owners in Chinatown to come together as a community?
The lack of tourism has forced a lot of shops to close due to a decrease in the number of customers and has made Chinatown feel like a ghost town. Canal Street was bursting with thousands of people one day, and then the blocks were suddenly empty the next day. This was surprising for me to see because I grew up right on Canal Street and was used to the hustle and bustle of life in Chinatown.
I do believe that the challenges of the pandemic did help bring restaurants and business owners together, as I wouldn’t have the same relationship with the other owners as I do now had the pandemic never happened. When I met with other restaurant owners during the pandemic, we formed an immediate bond because we all had one mission: to keep Chinatown going. We looked out for each other, and we helped each other. To be honest, the pandemic helped me form some new, lasting friendships in the business world of Chinatown.
One terrible side effect of the pandemic has been a resurgence of xenophobia toward people of Asian descent. How has this changed Tonii’s relationship with your community and city?
Not much has changed; we looked out for our community before, and we still do now. If any problems arise, we’re always ready to step in. We aren’t afraid because we’ve always been proud to be Chinese. We have a great relationship with our Guardian Angels, and we support them and thank them for fully defending our community.
Poster on Tonii’s window (Photo courtesy of Tonii’s)
Any plans for the future? Both amidst and beyond the pandemic?
Hopefully, we can open our mother store, New Kam Hing, on 118 Baxter St. back up! We’re in the midst of reconstructing that bakery to sell some of the same items that we sell at Tonii’s.
What do you hope your legacy will be? I.e., 50 years from now when people think back and remember Tonii’s, what do you want them to remember?
I want people to remember the memories they made when they came to eat at our shop with their families. I want our customers to be able to pass along their memories from generation to generation. I hope that grandparents bring their sons and daughters and that those kids will in turn bring their kids and so on. I want everyone to feel a sense of warmth and happiness when they remember Tonii’s.
Tonii’s outdoor dining (PC: Kevin Xiao)
How can people support your business?
Come to Chinatown and shop in our shops! Spread the word that Chinatown is coming back to life and help bring hope to other Chinatown businesses.
Anything else you would like people to know or talk about?
For me, Chinatown is home. I will do all that I can during this time to keep Tonii’s going. I want to be able to come to Tonii’s with grandkids of my own 30 years down the line. I want everyone to know that Tonii’s is here to stay. Tonii’s is about family and, by walking through the doors of Tonii’s, you are considered family to me.
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Chinatown establishments like Tonii’s are what makes the spirit of our neighborhood. We need your support — now more than ever before — to keep that spirit alive. Please consider making a donation to our small business relief fund, The Longevity Fund, or help us spread the word of what’s at stake. Together, we can preserve Chinatown businesses and help say “Chinatown will always be open for business.”