Opening a restaurant carries high costs, few rewards, grinding work, and a tiny success rate. Chakriya Un (Cha) has spent years promoting Cambodian food through pop-ups under the name Kreung and now runs Bong, her first permanent restaurant, in an unassuming Brooklyn storefront. Bong operates only Friday through Sunday with a tiny outdoor patio and limited seating; reservations fill quickly and walk-ins are not accepted. The restaurant only recently obtained a beer-and-wine license, and Un managed kitchen operations while nine months pregnant. Khmer cooking remains underrepresented, and Bong produces delicious, sometimes thrilling results despite many obstacles.
Bong (a Khmer term of endearment and respect) is her first permanent restaurant. Open since June, Bong actually started announcing itself sometime in mid-July, and it remains open only Friday through Sunday. Its outdoor patio is a couple of lawn tables on the concrete, and it didn't receive a license to sell beer and wine until mid-August, after I'd visited. Reservations go quickly, and the place is too small to accept walk-ins. On top of it all, Un is nine months' pregnant.
Despite all the obstacles and little irritants, Bong is delicious and worth the minor headache of finding your way in. Like their compatriots Anthony Ha and Sadie Mae Burns of Ha's Snack Bar, with whom they once shared a pop-up kitchen, Un and her partner, Alexander Chaparro (who is also her fiancé), have carved out a space in the dining industry's inhospitable wilderness. The results can be thrilling.
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