Small businesses booming as NYC bounces back from pandemic, data shows

NEW YORK — As New York City continues to bounce back from the pandemic, it turns out small businesses are booming. That's according to city data, which also reveals thousands of new restaurants are part of that trend.

City officials say there's been an influx of small businesses calling New York City – and more specifically, Chinatown – home since the end of the pandemic.

"Over the past two years, over 400 new businesses have started in Chinatown and Two Bridges, helping to create almost 3,000 jobs," said Melissa Pumphrey, with New York City's Economic Development Corporation.

Pumphrey says post-pandemic, with close to 20% of Manhattan offices still empty, it turns out more New Yorkers than ever are choosing to be their own boss.

"Over 55,000 new small businesses have started during this mayoral administration," she said. "We see a lot of people starting small businesses out of their own homes, but we also see, for example, over 5,000 new restaurants."

Pecking House owner's pivot from fine dining to fried chicken

Former fine dining chef Eric Huang is among those small business owners who made a pandemic pivot.

"I was a sous chef at Eleven Madison Park. I left in January 2020 to try to open my own fine dining restaurant. Rough, rough timing," he said.

With restaurants closed, Huang started the delivery fried chicken business Pecking House out of his uncle's Chinese restaurant kitchen in Queens, even delivering the meals himself, and ended up going viral with a 10,000-person waitlist.

"It became way more successful than I ever intended it to be," Huang said.

Now, he operates two restaurants, including a location that just opened in Chinatown at the end of September.

"To reconnect our story to Chinatown, the story of Chinese American immigration, is really meaningful," he said.