Queens Restaurateurs Remember, Thank Anthony Bourdain

JACKSON HEIGHTS, QUEENS -- When Sanggien Ben learned beloved celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain took his own life Friday morning, the Jackson Heights restaurant owner said a little prayer for him.

Ben got to meet Bourdain in the flesh last year when the CNN star - known for his quest to sample the world's most extraordinary foods - dined in his eatery, Lhasa Fast Food, for an episode of Bourdain's show Parts Unknown that explored Queens' hidden culinary gems.

"I was very upset to hear about Anthony," Ben told Patch through a translator. "He's a very good man."

Lhasa Fast Food, a Tibetan eatery tucked in the back of a cell phone store at 37-50 74th St., is easy to miss, but Ben said since it appeared on Parts Unknown last May, business has been booming.

Ben said Bourdain sat with him for around four hours while he sampled the eatery's thenthuk (hand-torn noodle soup), shapta (chili-fried beef) and - Bourdain's favorite - sha momo (steamed beef dumplings)

Before he left, Bourdain posed for a photo with Ben that still hangs in restaurant today.

"When I met him I felt very comfortable talking to him," Ben said. "He made me feel like I was someone important when he talked to me."

As Bordain ate his way through the borough, that became part of what Queens restaurant owners came to love about him. Despite being labeled "one of the most diverse places on Earth," Queens' restaurant scene tends to get lost in the shadows of Brooklyn and Manhattan. Bourdain not only put the spotlight back on it, he made its restauranteurs feel important.

Jason Wang, CEO of Xi'an Famous Foods, a citywide Chinese restaurant chain, said in an emotional Instagram post Friday that Bourdain changed his life when he visited the family's first location - a basement food stall in Flushing - for Travel Channel's "No Reservations" TV series in 2007.

Bourdain's raving review of the eatery helped Wang's family grow their restaurant and go from "living in one room in Flushing to living the American dream," he said.

Wang said when he approached Bourdain years later to thank him, the celebrity chef simply replied,"I'm just calling out good food like it is, that's all."

Though Bourdain was born in New York, he admitted in Parts Unknown that, up until that point, he hadn't explored as much of the borough's restaurant scene as much as he would have liked. He decided to film his Queens episode to change that.

"It’s irritating to me — embarrassing really — that I don’t know more of Queens — where the Chinese restaurants are better and more numerous than Manhattan’s, where their Koreatown is better than our Koreatown, where cooks and cultures from all over the world collide and mix in glorious ways," Bourdain said.

During the episode, Bourdain visits eight other eateries, including: An Ecuadorian food cart near a 7 train stop in Corona, Yu Garden Dumpling House in Flushing, Geo Si Gi restaurant, Neir's Tavern in Woodhaven, Tamales by Evelia Coyotzi in Jackson Heights and Brisas Del Mar in the Rockaways.

Queens lawyer and community organizer Ali Najmi, one of Bourdain's tour guide's through the show, told Time magazine Friday the chef made an effort to showcase the borough's diversity in both cuisine and people.

“The best thing about Bourdain was that he loves the food, but loves the people behind it even more,” Najmi told the news outlet. “He truly was invested in people and he figured out that food is the connector of people.”

Bourdain made as much clear in some of his final thoughts on Queens' Parts Unknown episode.

"Queens, I hope, is an argument for the founders’ original intent, a place where America still offers the world something of inestimable value: hope—and in return, receives so much."

Anyone struggling with mental health can get help by calling National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 or visiting this website. New Yorkers can also find resources by calling 1-888-NYC-WELL.