Get Ready for Fried Chicken Made by Robots

Get ready for chicken made by robots in Koreatown at Robert Fried Chicken: 298 Fifth Avenue, near West 31st Street, an 8,400 square-foot Korea-based chain. Kang Ji-young founded Robo Arete in 2018, a company that makes cooking robots, and now owns six franchise stores of Robert Chicken primarily in Seoul. The restaurant can make “about 40 to 50 portions per hour,” she says. She’s calculated that it doubles the amount of frying it would be possible for a single laborer to do and it shields workers from potentially unhealthy working conditions. Meanwhile, robot cat servers have already descended on NYC dim sum parlors...

A fundraiser for the family of the late King Phojanakong

The family of King Phojanakong, the chef behind lauded Lower East Side restaurant Kuma Inn, has started a GoFundMe to support Phojanakong’s wife and children following the loss of their husband and father.

Tao may be up for auction

James Dolan, owner of Madison Square Garden Entertainment, who acquired the controlling stake in Tao Group in 2017, has apparently moved toward auctioning off one of the country’s largest restaurant groups with 32 properties in NYC, the New York Post reports. “First-round bids for Tao...are being submitted now,” it reports. Houston’s Tilman Fertitta — owner the Houston Rockets and Landry’s (Morton’s The Steakhouse, McCormick & Schmick’s Rainforest Cafe)— named by Forbes as the “world’s richest restaurateur, is “a rumored suitor.”

Chinatown stalwart Big Wong is opening in Williamsburg

Big Wong, known for its Cantonese staples, is opening a second location in Williamsburg at 135B N. Fifth Street, between Berry Street and Bedford Avenue, according to Greenpointers.