Nom Wah Tea Parlor
11 Doyers Street | Chinatown | built 1920
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The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.
Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1920
A two-story golden brick store goes up at 11-13 Doyers and becomes home to Nom Wah Tea Parlor
The National Register nomination for the Chinatown and Little Italy Historic District cites 11-13 Doyers as typical of the plain, utilitarian commercial style that dominated new building from the 1920s on. It describes a two-story golden brick store with flat lintels, built around 1920, as the home of the Nam Wah Tea Parlor, which it calls the oldest operating tea parlor in Chinatown.
Source: National Register nomination
- 1950
Sixteen-year-old Wally Tang arrives from China to work in the Choy family's bakery
From the 1940s Ed and May Choy ran Nom Wah mostly as a bakery. In 1950 their nephew Wally Tang came from China to New York at age 16 and went to work there. He would later take over the business.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1976
Wally Tang buys Nom Wah, eight years after it moves from 15 to 13 Doyers
Nom Wah first opened at 15 Doyers Street and moved to number 13 in 1968. In 1976 Wally Tang, who had come to work for the Choy family as a teenager, bought the business. The original owners from 1920 are not known.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2010
Wilson Tang, a former investment banker, buys Nom Wah and replaces dim sum carts with a menu
In 2010 Wally Tang's nephew Wilson Tang, a former investment banker, bought the restaurant. He moved it from traditional dim sum served from metal carts to made-to-order dishes ordered from a menu. In October 2020 he published The Nom Wah Cookbook, built around recipes and stories from the restaurant's first century.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2014
A scene in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is filmed at Nom Wah Tea Parlor
The 2014 superhero film The Amazing Spider-Man 2 used Nom Wah Tea Parlor in Manhattan's Chinatown as the location of a scene. The restaurant opened in 1920 and is described as the oldest continuously running restaurant in the neighborhood.
“The restaurant was featured as a location of a scene in the 2014 film The Amazing Spider-Man 2.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 2015
Nom Wah hosts a pre-party for the Met Gala
Nom Wah Tea Parlor, the Chinatown tea parlor on Doyers Street, hosted the Met Gala pre-party in 2015. The restaurant had also appeared in a 2014 film, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, as a filming location.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2017
Nom Wah invents the baogel, a bagel crossed with a cha siu bao
In 2017 the kitchen at Nom Wah created the baogel, a hybrid of a bagel and a cha siu bao, the barbecue pork bun. The tea parlor, by then in the hands of Wilson Tang, also has outposts in Philadelphia, Shenzhen and Nolita.
Source: Wikipedia
Further reading
- Nom Wah Tea ParlorWikipedia
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