After six years as one of the city’s most popular roving pop-ups, Ha’s Đặc Biệt will finally open a brick-and-mortar restaurant on the Lower East Side.
Ha’s Đặc Biệt was initially the side project of Anthony Ha and Sadie Mae Burns, who met as line cooks working at Mission Chinese food and plan to marry in September. The pop-up began churning out Vietnamese street food at street fairs and other locations in 2019.
Like many other pop-ups around the city, Ha’s Đặc Biệt’s takeout — and then pop-up — business boomed amid the pandemic lockdowns, when traditional dining options were closed.
Now, Ha and Burns are moving into a small space at 297 Broome St., originally home to Gem Wine, where Ha’s Đặc Biệt had a monthlong residency earlier this year. (Gem Wine has since moved around the corner.)
“We’re so excited, we’ve always known that this was the goal,” Burns said in a phone interview. “We’ve got much so that we want to do that now we feel like we can finally do.”
They plan to open in December or January with a small staff, including Burns’ younger brother, who is a butcher, and perhaps one more server. Ha and Burns said they will be there every night.
Ha said that he and Burns envision the restaurant as a wine bar with an emphasis on charcuterie and small plates, in keeping with the previous Vietnamese menu.
“In New York we’ve come to view wine bars as a place where you can have a full dinner,” he said. “This is really supposed to just be: You don’t know where to go, or you’re between meals and you need a drink and a snack, you come in and out and it’s bustling and full of people.”
Burns said that they hope to have several tables outside, though they recognize that the restaurant’s location on a block New York magazine once called the “smelliest block in New York” is a bit “funny” for outdoor dining.
The announcement, which was posted on Instagram on Wednesday, received an outpouring of support from fans.
“Already my favorite restaurant,” wrote the cookbook author and former New York Times food writer Alison Roman. Comedian and winemaker Eric Wareheim, Superiority Burger, Tart Vinegar and others echoed their support in the comments.
Running a pop-up in various spaces offered flexibility, but was often frustrating, Ha said.
“You’re opening a whole restaurant every single time,” he said. “We need our ingredients, stuff they might not have.”
Still, Ha and Burns know that opening a restaurant in New York City is not for the meek.
“People keep looking at us like we’re crazy,” Burns said. “They’re like, ‘Oh, you think you’re tired now? Just wait.’”