Lucas Sin - Junzi Kitchen The Line

On today’s show, I welcome Lucas Sin, Eater Young Guns Class of 2019 and Forbes 30 under 30 and the chef/partner in Junzi Kitchen. Lucas opened his first restaurant when he was 16, in an abandoned newspaper factory in his hometown of Hong Kong with the help of friends and support from his family. While obtaining a degree in the Cognitive Science and English departments, he also hosted a popup out of his dorm and cooked at multiple restaurants in New Haven. In the Yale Entrepreneurial Institute he met his future Junzi Kitchen business partners and incubated the concept. In 2015, Junzi kitchen opened in New Haven and now has 3 additional locations in New York City. The company also has a new concept called Nice Day, which was born out of the pandemic and is focused on honoring classic American-Chinese classics. Nice day is currently incubating inside of a Junzi location, while they plan to launch its own brick and mortar location soon. In this episode we talk about pop-ups, not knowing what goes into opening a restaurant, the rapid growth of Junzi Kitchen and the past present and future of American-Chinese food.