Johnny’s, a new Chifa restaurant in Brooklyn with an innovative spirit, is making its case as the go-to spot for rotisserie chicken and salad.
Chifa refers to Chinese-Peruvian food, a style that combines Chinese cooking techniques like the use of a wok, soy sauce, sesame and ginger, with Peruvian flavors, like aji amarillo, a golden chili.
At Johnny’s, which opened in Williamsburg in July, you can order classic chifa plates like Arroz Chaufa, fried rice with vegetables including bell peppers and onions, and the Kam Lu Wantan, a pork and shrimp-stuffed wonton with sweet and sour sauce. But what pops are the experimental dishes like the sesame caesar salad and chocolate chip cookie skillet.
The sesame caesar is a play on the traditional caesar salad by using saltine crackers and sesame as the crumble on top instead of croutons.
“Saltines are used a lot in Peruvian cuisine, and sauces as a thickener, and sesame seeds, a lot in Chinese cuisine,” said Johnny co-owner Stephanie Tang. “So I kind of combined the two and made this salad that has the nuttiness from the sesame, the little crunchiness from the saltine, paired with the cheesiness of the Caesar.”
The flavors of the chocolate cookie skillet comes from adding dulce de leche and black sesame caramel with vanilla ice-cream.
“Again, I was inspired by a cross-cultural collaboration: a famous dessert filling from Peruvian cuisine, the dulce de leche, and the black sesame, a beloved topping and flavor in Chinese desserts, into a famous American dessert, the chocolate chip cookie,” Tang explained.
In the past, the Tangs operated mostly takeout food businesses. With a dine-in restaurant, Tang hopes that Johnny’s will become a true neighborhood staple.
The Tang family immigrated from Lima, Peru to New York City in the 70s, taking their recipe of rotisserie chicken into the restaurant business here. Tang recalled that she grew up in the restaurant, “sleeping on bags of rice for my nap.” Her older family members went into the food business mostly out of necessity—a job that didn’t require English or a college degree.
Tang’s father Johnny, whom the restaurant is named for, eventually became an engineer. After facing a lot of discrimination, her father returned to the restaurant industry, before passing away when Tang was a very young girl.
Although Johnny’s currently only serves dinner, Tang, who runs the restaurant with her brother John and her mother Pearl, said the family has plans to open during lunch soon.
Tang, who works full-time in the fashion industry, said she might be emulating her father as she hopes to work in the restaurant full-time.
Johnny's, at 642 Lorimer St., is open Tuesday - Thursday from 5:00pm - 10:00pm; Friday - Saturday from 5:00pm - 10:30pm; Sunday 5:00pm - 10:00pm and closed on Monday.
