Yale's Chinese entrepreneurs build food biz as cultural symbol

NEW YORK - When Zhao Yong was pursuing his PhD at Yale University in the early 2010s, he was frustrated to learn that some local Chinese restaurants he frequented would no longer be there in the near future due to low profit margins and increasing labor costs.

"Most of them were run by families of the older generations of Chinese immigrants, and the owners had told me their children would not follow in their footsteps," said the environmental science major from northeastern China's Liaoning province.

Zhao craves the taste of home. So, he and six of his college-mates from China saw a big opportunity through this looming crisis, which was to establish a fast-casual chain that could represent the new generation of Chinese restaurants and redefine Chinese food in the United States.