A New Chinese American Restaurant Wants to Write Its Own Legacy in Chinatown

Fried Chongqing chicken. Chef Anthony Wang draws on memories of his childhood at his restaurant Firstborn After sitting empty since 2017, the former PokPok space in Chinatown will soon be home to a new restaurant from one of Los Angeles’s most creative chefs: Anthony Wang. Firstborn will open on March 28 in Mandarin Plaza, next to modern teahouse Steep, wine bar Cafe Triste, and slice shop LaSorted’s.

Wang cut his teeth at well-regarded Los Angeles restaurants like Michael Voltaggio’s Ink, Eric Bost’s Auburn, and Jordan Kahn’s Destroyer. At Firstborn, he will serve his interpretation of Chinese American cuisine, inspired by his parent’s history in Beijing, summer trips across China, and his childhood in Georgia and Miami. The name is a nod to Wang being the first person in his family to be born in the U.



S.Firstborn has been in development since 2022 when Wang began looking at potential spaces in Los Angeles. After striking out around town in his search, he considered leaving the city entirely.

“I got really discouraged,” Wang says. “I couldn’t find something that was financially feasible for me.” Chinatown wasn’t on his radar as an option until a Destroyer regular asked him to lunch in the neighborhood and introduced him to Mandarin Plaza landlords Martin and Scott Lee.

The brothers grew up in Chinatown and have a long history in the area — their father, a contractor, built the plaza. “I immediately got this overwhelming sense of how personal this space was and what it meant for them,” Wang says. The Lees told Wang that they had been waiting for the right tenant for the space — someone whose vision they could get behind.

Over the last few years, Wang has gotten to know the neighborhood and its community, hearing stories from neighbors who grew up going to longtime businesses like Phoenix Bakery and Golden Dragon. In conversations with longtime locals, Wang got a sense that people were excited about the emergence of new businesses and life in the area. He remembers a rainy night before signing the lease when he knew in his gut that he made the right choice.

The red light from the hotel right across the street bounced off the wall of windows at the restaurant — suddenly Wang felt like he was a kid in Beijing again. “I was just like, I think this is it,” he says. Wonho Frank Lee Exterior of Firstborn in Chinatown.

That sense of nostalgia for time and place is a throughline that can be traced across Firstborn’s menu. Mapo tartare is inspired by Wang’s days of being a young line cook in Boston, ordering heaping portions of mapo tofu and eating it cold the next morning. “The aromatics of the chiles are so much more open and flavorful when you’re eating it cold, which was really interesting to me,” Wang says.

For the preparation at Firstborn, he serves tartare dressed in spicy chile oil, alongside ice-cold tofu, which acts as a palate-cleanser. “The rest of the menu took shape in the same way,” Wang says. “Just inspired by particular dishes that really resonated with me growing up eating, and then [thinking about how] we take a French kind of approach to it and cook in a style that we understand.

” Barbecue cabbage, which takes cues from twice-cooked pork, is broiled whole until tender, before slices of leeks are slipped between the layers. The cabbage is then broiled again, before being dressed with a mixture of soy sauces and Chinese black vinegar. The dish harkens back to Wang’s own love for cabbage and his childhood memories of eating it.

Fried Chongqing chicken, which takes two days to make, is inspired by the Southern fried chicken Wang ate growing up in Georgia. The chicken is brined for a few hours, before being dunked in a wet batter and dredged, both made of corn starch, potato starch, and all-purpose flour. The chicken sits overnight as the batter hydrates the dredge, resulting in a crisp outer that doesn’t hold onto too much oil.

Other dishes on the menu include a steamed egg custard with bay scallops, English peas, sea lettuce; carrot congee with pork belly, asparagus, and bergamot; aged lamb saddle with Sichuan jus and shredded potato; and duck sausage with tofu skin and charred onion consomme. While traditional Chinese meals don’t often end with heavy sweets, Wang knew he wanted to do something for dessert. Instead of a traditional pastry program, he decided to offer a play on the cut fruit plates that are the more common choice for dessert at a Chinese banquet.

Wang tapped former Vespertine, Destroyer, and Meteora pastry chef Jaime Craten to design a dessert menu that would make sense with the rest of the meal. At Firstborn, smooth almond tofu is topped with citrus, jujube, and osmanthus; the flowers remind Wang of his summers in China watching blooms blow across the street as he caught the sweet scent. He plans to adapt the fruit served with the tofu with the seasons; oro blanco grapefruit currently rests on top, but summer will bring stonefruit.

Kenzo Han helms the bar program, offering cocktails like an osmanthus and fermented rice sour with Nikka Coffey gin, osmanthus, and fermented rice; the Ume Yuzu Last Word with Mal Bien espadin, umeshu, and yuzu shochu; and a sesame Old-Fashioned. Han’s past experience leading the bar at Steep LA and working with tea comes across in the menu, which features tea-infused cocktails, alongside a loose leaf tea menu. For a non-alcoholic option, diners can try the hojicha orange milk punch or the Adzuki Swizzle with mugicha (barley tea), adzuki, passion fruit, black sesame, and mint.

Wine by the glass and bottle is also available. Interior of Firstborn. Wang led the design of the restaurant, drawing elements of Shanghai and the concept of East meets West into the space.

He chose the grid-style windows in the front because they reminded him of Beijing, and opted for green tiles for their similarity to jade, a color broadly considered lucky in Chinese culture. “We definitely wanted to make the restaurant feel like it was soft,” Wang says. In contrast to Los Angeles restaurants that lead into a more industrial vibe, he aimed to pull out more feminine aspects of the space with jewel tones, soft curved arches, and warm colors.

As Wang prepares to open the doors to Firstborn, he’s reflecting on how his understanding of how Chinatown has changed. “I didn’t really understand what I was signing up for,” he jokes, talking about when he first decided to open in the neighborhood. Now, three years later, he’s settled into a sense of gratitude that this is where his first restaurant will open — that he gets to serve this community.

“This neighborhood resonates personally with so many people,” Wang says. “I wanted to honor tradition but also bring an element of my own personality into this space and into this neighborhood. Where I come from, and this story of new Chinese American.

” Looking around at the longstanding businesses that surround the restaurant, Wang says he hopes that he will get to write his own chapter in the legacy of the neighborhood one day. Firstborn is located open on March 28, 2025 and is located at 978 N. Broadway, Los Angeles, CA 90012.

It will hold hours from 5 p.m. to 10 p.

m. Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday, and from 5 p.m.

to 10:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

Reservations are available through Resy. Firstborn. Dining room.

Patio seating. Bar. Wood-paneled corner in the dining room.

Wonho Frank Lee Lamb saddle, Chongqing fried chicken, and more dishes at Firstborn. Carrot congee. Fried Chongqing chicken.

Mapo tartare. Tofu gnudi. Strawberry dessert with lemongrass cream, coconut, and cashew.

Chamomile custard with green apple, cucumber, and shortbread. Firstborn Spring Martini. Negroni with baijiu and pu’er.

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