FSR January 2023

STARTMEUP YOUR STORIES OF OPENING A NEW RESTAURANT, OVERCOMING OBSTACLES, AND BUILDING A SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS.

Phat Eatery

KIMBERLY PARK KIMBERLY PARK (2) / CHUCK COOK

After four years as a single-unit operator, Houston-area chef Alex Au-Yeung is open ing a second location of Phat Eatery. The funky, Malaysian street food–slinging concept recently earned him a spot on the James Beard semifinalist list for Best Chef: Texas. The new outpost in The Woodlands, Texas, will feature much of the same menu, but at 7,800 square feet, it will seat more than twice as many guests as the original. While Au-Yeung is holding close to the cuisine that made the original such a hit, he’s also expanding Phat Eatery’s menu with Chinese barbecue, more dim sum offerings, and lunch options like bian dang, which is inspired by Japanese bento. FSR caught up with Au-Yeung ahead of the opening to get the scoop.

A FAMILIAR MARKET One of the reasons we chose eWood lands for our second location is because we have a lot of oil and gas industry people as guests. Our original location is very close to the energy corridor of Houston. ere’s a lot of guests who, because of the industry, used to live in Singapore andMalaysia. Because of that, they know the cuisine very well. e Woodlands has even more oil and gas industry offices, so it just made sense for us to expand there instead of coming into town or going to the central business district. THE INDEPENDENT WAVE Our original Katy location started at 2,000 square feet, then we expanded next door to make it 3,000 square

feet, and we just expanded again two months ago to add another 1,000 square feet. We have a lot of guests who actually drive 45 minutes from e Woodlands to Katy to dine. e Woodlands also has a real lack of independent restaurants. It’s just like Katy 10 years ago when it was just all chains and franchises, but now Katy is booming with a lot more indepen dent restaurants. BIGGER VENUE—AND MENU Chinese barbecue is something I have always wanted to do. We don’t have it at the Katy location; our space is not really built for that. So at e Wood lands location, there’s no other Chinese barbecue in a 30-mile radius. Dim sum is another thing. Traditional dim sum

is popular in Malaysia and Southeast Asia. We have some dim sum items in Katy, but we’ll expand with a bigger menu in e Woodlands. We will also still be open for lunch and have spe cials on the weekdays for office people around there. WORD TO THE WISE Whether it’s your first restaurant or your third, I think the most important part is to have a professional real estate broker who specializes in restaurants. is is the No. 1 thing I always tell peo ple: Don’t see a sign and call that num ber and talk to the landlord. I’ve seen a lot of restaurants with great operations, great chefs, and great ser vice fail because of the lease that they did not negotiate correctly.

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FSRMAGAZINE .COM

JANUARY 2023