Taam China In Brookline Is Open, Under New Management

BROOKLINE, MA — Taam China will be around for a while, but the current corporation behind the restaurant owned by a man who is facing charges of child rape in Weston and charges related to secretly recording women in the Brookline restaurant's bathroom, is about to get a serious makeover, according to the restaurant's attorney.

"It's definitely something we need to reinvent," said the attorney representing the restaurant. "This thing shocked the entire community."

The restaurant is open for business in the meantime, according to someone who picked up the phone Thursday afternoon.

"We're in the process of winding down the business and starting new," attorney Meihuei Hu told Patch in an interview. "He has not been at the restaurant since he was escorted away by the police," she said referencing the owner Andy Chung who is out on bail with criminal charges against him. Chung has orders not to return to the restaurant.

Tuesday night, the Select Board gave the Kosher restaurant three conditions to keeping its common victual license after reviewing whether or not it should shut the place down.

The restaurant needs a new manager, Chung is not permitted to make any operational decisions, nor is he allowed on site and within two months the restaurant has to come back to the Select Board and update them on reorganization and ownership status.

Although Chung filed papers with the state naming the chef as sole officer of the establishment, Chung and Ying are both 50 percent owners, according to Brookline Town Council Patty Correa.

But that looks set to change, according to Hu.

"The board allowed us to continue the business but there are some conditions put on us. We really just want to ensure that going forward public safety is safeguarded and immediate supervision of the restaurant is in place."

Hu previously said the business was closed as they get those things in order. She told Patch Tuesday she wasn't sure when the establishment would be up and running. She said she was focused on finding someone who speaks English to help run the place, file a proper application and get the background of that person checked and give that information to the town. They will also be working with appraisers and professionals for advice on how to shut down the old corporation and ties to Chung to start clean with Ying in charge.

Ying who does not speak fluent English has been the chef at the restaurant for the past 20 years, according to Hu.

Chef Ying, she said was in a sense another victim of the events and had nothing to do with Chung's conduct. "The community is outraged and not to mention disgusted. Chef Ying feels the same way," she said.

And now the plan is to win back the trust of the community.

"I think the desire is there from the community. They want to see us continue to be a Kosher Chinese restaurant but at the same time they want a clean start," said Hu.

Michael A. Burstein, a Brookline Library Trustee and Town Meeting Member, has been a patron of the restaurant ever since it opened. He spoke at the public meeting Tuesday night.

"The local Jewish community was very discombobulated by the news," he said in a message to Patch. "Taam China is literally the only kosher Chinese restaurant in all of New England, and people would run into friends there all the time. We're hoping that the Select Board's wise decision on conditions will give Mr. Ying and the employees a chance to reorganize the restaurant and allow us to move on."

Taam China is open:

11 a.m. - 9:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday.
11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday
12 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Sunday.

See how the public hearing on the license went Tuesday night, it begins one hour and 16 minutes into the regularly scheduled Select Board meeting:

Previously on Patch: Taam China To Change Ownership?

File photo by Jenna Fisher/Patch