By Mario Mancini
Hours after the trendy rooftop eatery Outerspace received a glowing review from the NY Times, the chefs and general manager walked out and shortly after the restaurant went out of business.
Ha’s Đặc Biệt, a critically acclaimed, roving Vietnamese pop-up run by Anthony Ha and Sadie Mae Burns, and Kreung, an equally beloved Cambodian pop-up from Chinchakriya Un, joined forces to create Outerspace,
Molly McIver and Wells Stellberger, the co-founders of 99 Scott, come from the fashion industry and opened up their “cultural space” in 2016, own Outerspace, which now is a restaurant without any cooks.
The collaboration, an instant success since launching over Memorial Day weekend, caught the attention of Times restaurant critic Pete Wells, who on July 6 published an enthusiastic review celebrating the teams “seamlessly” incorporated joint menu, including its grilled fish paired with a pile of hard-to-source herbs like heartleaf and lemon balm, stir-fried lobster, and “exquisitely well-roasted” chicken. The review heralded the spot as “the restaurant of the summer”, NY Eater reported.
A day after the review was published, all reservations were cancelled, and foodies were left wondering: what happened?
The new rooftop restaurant in Bushwick/East Williamsburg launched at its location and was scheduled to remain at its location until labor day, for a summer of unique outdoor dining.
“Ha’s X Kreung have made the difficult decision to no longer continue our residency at [Outerspace venue] 99 Scott,” a statement initially posted to both Ha’s Đặc Biệt’s and Kreung’s Instagram accounts reads. “We realize this is extremely short notice and we are tremendously grateful to our supporters and proud of our accomplishments — however, after a few days off, we were able to really think about our priorities and our urge to push this industry and ethos forward. That reflection directly led to this unfortunate decision.”
NY Eater reported: it was not a well-run venue, according to a range of chefs, servers, and other staffers who worked with the pair in its first year. When staffers tried to express their concerns about working conditions, their voices were not valued, they claim, which was particularly frustrating for some after the industry’s pandemic collapse prompted a reckoning that seemed to centralize worker voices.
One of the chefs, Chinchakriya Un, posted a vicious Instagram attack on July 8 with more than 98,000 views that was clearly aimed at Outerspace owners Wells Stellberger and Molly McIver, NY Post reported.
Under her Instagram handle Kreung, the name of her Cambodian food business, Un denounced “culture vultures dressed in normcore” who practiced “dated power dynamics” and “internalized misogyny.”
She said they were “white people [who] feel entitled to writing narratives that don’t belong to them.” For good measure, Un wrote, presumably referring to the Times, “I will talk about how this write-up benefits them, exposes their white saviorism, but also saves their ass from any foul play.”
She also said that they “worked 20 hour days and were struggling to keep a restaurant flowing just off of food revenue” while the owners raked in all the bar revenue
Regardless of the “woke” gibberish included in Un’s Instagram post, this entire incident does raise important issues within the restaurant business, mainly being overworked and underpaid.
The pairing of Un and Ha want to continue to work together.
