after a year of covering nyc restaurants during the pandemic era, this is still my favorite discovery while researching for a piece
Gary He
@garyhe
Photojournalist. 2x James Beard Award loser + winner. Danny Glover punched me in the face once and it's been downhill since then.
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good to see an asian photojournalist get his due after busting his ass. congrats
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For three months this past winter, followed the team at Saigon Social, a Vietnamese restaurant in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, as they navigated yet another Covid curveball: Omicron.
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ICYMI: For Times Insider, explains in exquisite detail "the regularity of my visits, and my tactic to sometimes silently stand in a corner for hours and just observe without shooting a single frame" for
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For three months this past winter, followed the team at Saigon Social, a Vietnamese restaurant in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, as they navigated yet another Covid curveball: Omicron.
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For three months this past winter, followed the team at Saigon Social, a Vietnamese restaurant in the Lower East Side, as they navigated yet another Covid curveball: Omicron.
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And just to remind everyone, 's work about NY restaurants during the pandemic has been so intimate and personal, bringing the workers (kitchen, delivery, service) to the forefront. Not just the business aspect or the taste, quality. Few food writers/photogs can touch him.
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Found a copy of my hometown paper in Las Vegas! Thank you to , and everyone at that worked on this. Two whole Sunday pages, plus a couple of bonus inches on business front
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still nothing cooler than seeing your work in print (and having your best friend tweet it as you're just waking up three time zones away)
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when she finally posts you on main:
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We spent three months with the owner of Saigon Social, a Vietnamese restaurant in New York City that has only ever existed in pandemic-era limbo. “I slept at the restaurant every night that first month because I was so depressed,” Helen Nguyen said. nyti.ms/3NbJhq8
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. kept returning to the local story within a global crisis. The American nightmare of COVID-19 largely began here, in our hometown, NYC. Strong work with top billing on the NYTimes homepage.
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Many thanks to , the design team, and all the editors over at for such a great collaborative process. They gave me everything that I asked for, and some things that I didn't know I could ask for as a freelancer. A+, let's do it again one day
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I swear the story has a happy ending! Helen got nominated for a award, after all. But you’ll have to read it yourself! How One New York City Restaurant Fought to Survive via nytimes.com/interactive/20
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The growing wave of anti-Asian violence hit close to home for Helen. One community friend was attacked, and she was chased by a stranger into her apartment building, just blocks away from a grisly murder. She now gets escorted home by friends every night. nytimes.com/interactive/20
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Saigon Social was originally slated to open March 13, 2020(!) Since then, chef/owner Helen Nguyen has contended with constantly changing business models, staffing shortages, and supply chain issues, which were on full display this winter alongside Omicron nytimes.com/interactive/20
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Thought I was done covering the pandemic, but then Omicron arrived and called. So I found a restaurant and embedded—and promptly got COVID. Three months later, my first solo double byline: a 1700-word, 30-picture interactive in the paper of record
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Loving the first edition of 's newsletter for , where she recaps eating at 26 restaurants in five days, many of them packed with carefree diners. The story of New York City is told by journalists on the ground >> link.nymag.com/view/5703e4c71
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"No aspect of life in America’s largest city was left untouched in its early days, but perhaps none was as drastically or visibly altered as its restaurant industry." great story + photo essay from
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i've got one or two more restaurant things left to do in new york but then i would really like to get back to being the person that or randomly texts "would you happen to be near XYZ city next week" and being able to answer yes
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The pandemic will continue to impact restaurants, of course. But with the opening of the ~new~ Jing Fong next week, my almost two year arc is complete. To end: the lifting of a Phoenix to the wall of the new restaurant, a symbol of both Jing Fong's and the city’s rebirth. -30-
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A couple of months turned into over a year. Some restaurants reverted back to the “talk to our PR person” mentality, but others left an open door for me. At Di An Di, I even went with the owners as they got vaccinated in March, a pivotal moment in the reopening of restaurants.
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It soon became apparent that the pandemic would be with us for a while. But because there were so few other people in the field, I was able to get inside a lot of places—Veselka (w/ ), EMP, etc. Eventually I was checking in on about a dozen places every week or two.
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Two days before the shutdown, Gotham became the first restaurant to "permanently" shutter as a result of the pandemic, with a blowout party where I magically did not get COVID. It re-opened under new management this week. reporting, pics moi: ny.eater.com/2021/11/4/2276
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Good journalism that involves actual journalism! Staying there, talking to people, waiting for things to happen. Refreshing in the genre.
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While Saga's views are spectacular, and the food comes from a Michelin-pedigreed team, it was important for me to continue hanging with the workers as I have throughout the pandemic. True to their word the Resy crew let me do whatever. Check it out here: blog.resy.com/2021/08/saga-n
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So of came to me a few months ago and said we want your work, give us whatever you want. I decided to go behind the scenes for what will probably be the most epic pandemic opening, 63 floors up atop 70 Pine: SAGA. blog.resy.com/2021/08/saga-n
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Did you really go to opening night of Eleven Madison Park’s veg menu if they didn’t send out White Claws to your table for dessert
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