Local plates, global bites

At Mt. ShooTao in Midtown Manhattan, two young entrepreneurs are testing how far a distinctly Sichuan way of eating can travel in New York — and what, if anything, needs to change along the way.

On a hot July afternoon, Mt. ShooTao on West 35th Street offers a relaxed escape from the bustling streets of Midtown Manhattan. The softly lit dining room provides a cool and inviting respite from the summer heat outside.

Evenings are much busier, Yuan Fang says, when friends, families and colleagues gather around bubbling pots. But the afternoon lull gives Fang, one of the restaurant's founders, time to sit down and talk.

The conversation begins with the restaurant's name.

In Chinese, the restaurant is called Shu Dao Shan, rendered in English as Mt. ShooTao — with "Mt." standing for shan, the Chinese word for mountain.

"Shu" is an ancient name for Sichuan, Fang's home province. Spoken in the Sichuan dialect, the full name also sounds like "I'll count to three", the sort of mock warning used to hurry along a friend or family member.

Fang left Sichuan for the United States at 17, studying supply chain management in Michigan and later finance in Boston.

Opening a restaurant was a different kind of education.

No franchise, no playbook

It took Fang and her business partner, William Wang, nearly a year and a half to find a home for their first restaurant.

Mt. ShooTao opened in July 2025, a short walk from Herald Square. Neither founder had run a restaurant in the US before, and they had no restaurant chain behind them.

Wang had worked in New York real estate before entering the restaurant business, experience that proved useful during the search for a location.

The partners had deliberately chosen not to buy a franchise. They wanted room to make their own decisions about food, sourcing, service and operations rather than reproduce a concept developed elsewhere.

For Wang, however, adapting to New York does not necessarily mean adapting the food itself. He sees two broad approaches: changing flavors to fit what diners already know, or presenting food closer to its own character and giving diners the chance to discover it.

He favors the latter.