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PatchJune 8, 2022
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LONG ISLAND CITY, QUEENS — Rejoice, lovers of hand-pulled noodles: Xi'an Famous Foods is opening a second location in Long Island City after buying an entire building just blocks from its existing restaurant, the company confirmed.
Xi'an's new store will open up at 12-15 Jackson Ave., near 48th Avenue in Hunter's Point — about a 10-minute walk west of its existing location on Jackson Avenue near 43rd Avenue.
There is one key difference: while the existing location is rented out, Xi'an will be its own landlord at the new shop. The company's CEO, Jason Wang, purchased the three-story building at 12-15 Jackson Ave. for $4.5 million in April, city records show.
"This will be more of a forever home for us in LIC," Wang said in an email to Patch, adding that the existing location is slated to remain open.
Founded by Wang's father as a small stand in Flushing's Golden Mall, Xi'an Famous Foods amassed a devoted following and began expanding around the city in the late 2000s. They got a boost from the late Anthony Bourdain, who featured it on his TV show in 2007, when Xi'an was still only a basement food stall.
The company faced difficulties during the pandemic, closing locations in Greenpoint, the West Village, Midtown and the Upper West Side — and also contending with multiple attacks against Asian employees.
The new Jackson Avenue location may open later this year, Wang told Patch.
"There are a lot of folks in the area that enjoy the food and we hope this will make it more accessible to them (especially since we don't deliver)!" Wang wrote in an email. (The company famously refuses to deliver and insists that customers consume its noodles right away, since they begin to congeal if left uneaten for too long.)
The company's new building was formerly occupied by a Kumon learning center and a restaurant supply store on the ground floor. Justin Vance, a realtor with Nest Seekers International who brokered the deal, told Patch that the building had been put on the market in 2020 as a development site, including 20,000 square feet of nearby air rights that could have enabled a sizeable building, until one of those owners backed out at the last minute.
"It was a pleasure dealing with both parties and I am excited to see what the new owners do to spice it up," Vance said.
Xi'an's move-in was first spotted by a Long Island City Reddit user, who noticed the company's flag affixed to the brick building last week.
