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The son of the chef behind Joe’s Shanghai is bringing soup dumplings back to Midtown. Husband-wife team Joseph and Kelly Si is planning to open Joe’s Home of Soup Dumplings at 7 East 48th Street, between Fifth and Madison avenues, in December — with Joseph, whose father is Joe’s founder Kiu Sang “Joe” Si, acting as the chef.
Though this new restaurant has a different name, Kelly Si tells Eater that the recipes and menu will be the same as the iconic original location’s, which were largely responsible for popularizing soup dumplings in New York since opening nearly 25 years ago. Joseph has been working at his father’s restaurants for years, and opening their own space with a slightly different name is a way for the new generation to build its own business.
The 200-seat new restaurant will have two entrances, one for people who are dining in, and another one at 12 East 49th Street for take-out for the Midtown lunch crowd.
It’s part of a bigger plan to potentially expand the company even more.
Joe’s Shanghai opened in Flushing in 1995, and despite its ongoing crowds, it hasn’t expanded much. There’s a thriving location on Pell Street in Chinatown, which will soon be replaced with a bigger location on Bowery. It once had a Midtown location on 56th Street, but that one closed.
Kelly Si says Joe’s Home of Dumplings is an attempt to modernize the brand and open new locations in a way that the more senior Si isn’t as interested in doing. Joe’s Home has a different, more modern website than the original Joe’s, and Kelly is running a separate Instagram for the restaurant, too. And the restaurant logo’s Chinese subtitle has been adjusted for the son. It translates to “son and father, but one heart,” Kelly says.
“Nothing [about the food] is changing,” she says. “We’re trying to be more into society today.”
If the new Midtown outpost does well, they want to open two more locations in New York and ones outside of the city as well.
Joe’s Home of Soup Dumplings opens in December.
