Eng’s Chinese Restaurant in Kingston, New York, has served generations of customers since 1927. Now operated by Chinese immigrant entrepreneurs Tom and Faye Sit, the family-run business represents resilience, cultural preservation, and the lasting influence of Chinese American restaurants.
Editorial Note
Minority-Owned Business Spotlight is a recurring New To Education series highlighting businesses with publicly reported minority, immigrant, veteran, women, or historically underrepresented founder and ownership stories.
This article is intended for educational and informational purposes only. Inclusion does not constitute an endorsement, sponsorship, paid promotion, formal minority-business certification claim, or recommendation of any company, product, or service.
A Chinese American Restaurant Becomes Part of Kingston’s Identity
Some businesses become known for a particular meal, product, or service. Others become inseparable from the communities where they operate.
Eng’s Chinese Restaurant in Kingston, New York, has accomplished both.
The restaurant has served Chinese American food in the Hudson Valley since 1927, making it one of the region’s longest-running independently owned restaurants. Its history spans immigration, economic uncertainty, changing food trends, the growth of Chinese American cuisine, and several generations of family stewardship.
Today, Eng’s is owned and operated by Tom and Faye Sit, Chinese immigrants whose personal journey became deeply connected to the restaurant’s survival.
Their story is not simply about maintaining an old restaurant. It is about adapting without abandoning identity, serving customers across generations, and demonstrating how immigrant-owned businesses can become permanent parts of American community life.
In 2026, that legacy received national recognition when Eng’s was selected for a James Beard Foundation America’s Classics Award.
Eng’s Opened When Chinese Restaurants Were Rare Outside Major Cities
Eng’s traces its history to 1927, when Jimmi Eng and his son Paul opened the restaurant on Wall Street in Kingston.
At the time, Chinese restaurants were far less common outside major urban centers such as New York City. According to the restaurant’s history, customers sometimes traveled from surrounding communities specifically to experience its Cantonese and Szechuan dishes.
The business later moved to a larger Wall Street location before relocating to its current home at 726 Broadway in 1966.
The restaurant developed a reputation for Chinese American dishes that were familiar, affordable, and prepared consistently. Its menu included items such as chow mein, fried rice, egg rolls, spare ribs, and combination dinners that became staples of Chinese American dining throughout the twentieth century.
Rather than repeatedly reinventing itself to follow every new restaurant trend, Eng’s built loyalty through continuity.
Families returned because the restaurant felt familiar. Children who ate there with their parents later brought their own families. Over time, the dining room became a place where local history and family memories overlapped.
Tom Sit’s Journey From China to Kingston
The modern chapter of Eng’s is closely tied to Tom Sit.
Sit was born in Guangzhou, China, during the Second World War. He later lived through political upheaval and hardship before leaving mainland China during the Cultural Revolution.
In 1968, he escaped to Hong Kong, where he worked demanding jobs while trying to build a more stable future. He eventually immigrated to the United States in 1974.
When Sit arrived in New York, he had limited possessions and was still learning how to navigate life in a new country. His journey eventually brought him to Kingston, where he found work in the restaurant industry.
He initially worked for businesses connected to the Eng family and later joined Eng’s Chinese Restaurant.
Sit’s work ethic and kitchen experience became essential to the restaurant. After Paul Eng retired, Sit took responsibility for operating the business.
What began as employment for a newly arrived immigrant eventually became nearly five decades of ownership, leadership, and community involvement.
Faye Sit Helped Build the Family Business
Tom Sit’s story is also inseparable from that of his wife, Faye.
The two had known each other while attending school in China but lost contact after Tom left. They later reconnected while Faye was living in Canada.
Their relationship continued through letters and visits before they married and built a life together in Kingston.
Tom and Faye raised three daughters while running Eng’s. Like many family-business owners, their personal and professional responsibilities were deeply connected.
Restaurants demand long hours, physical labor, financial risk, and constant attention. Family members often become managers, bookkeepers, cooks, marketers, customer-service representatives, and problem-solvers at the same time.
The Sit family’s commitment helped Eng’s remain open while many independent restaurants disappeared because of rising costs, ownership transitions, changing neighborhoods, and competition from national chains.
Their daughters have also helped the restaurant connect with a newer generation, including through social media, community storytelling, and special merchandise.
Why Chinese American Restaurants Matter
Chinese American restaurants occupy a distinctive place in the history of the United States.
For many Chinese immigrants, restaurant and laundry work became economic pathways during periods when discrimination restricted access to other industries and professions.
Chinese exclusion laws, racial hostility, restrictive immigration policies, and employment discrimination shaped where Chinese immigrants could live and how they could support their families.
Restaurants became one of the few industries where some Chinese immigrants could create their own employment and gradually establish financial independence.
Over time, Chinese restaurateurs adapted dishes to locally available ingredients and American customer preferences. The result was not simply traditional Chinese food transplanted to another country. It became a new Chinese American culinary tradition.
Dishes such as chop suey, chow mein, egg foo young, General Tso’s chicken, and American-style fried rice became familiar throughout the country.
These restaurants served food, but they also created points of cultural contact. In many towns, the local Chinese restaurant may have been one of the first places where residents regularly interacted with Chinese immigrants or encountered aspects of Chinese culture.
Eng’s reflects that broader history while remaining specifically connected to Kingston.
Consistency Became a Business Strategy
Many restaurants attempt to remain relevant by frequently redesigning their menus, interiors, and branding.
Eng’s followed a different path.
The restaurant became known for preserving familiar recipes, generous portions, recognizable flavors, and a traditional dining-room experience. Its classic booths, lighting, and décor contribute to a feeling that the restaurant exists outside rapidly changing food trends.
That consistency is not the same as refusing to evolve.
Eng’s expanded from dine-in service to takeout and delivery. It developed a stronger social-media presence, offered merchandise, participated in local events, and found new audiences through media attention.
The business adapted its operations while protecting the qualities that made longtime customers care about it.
This balance is difficult.
Change too little, and a business may lose relevance. Change too much, and it may erase the identity customers valued in the first place.
Eng’s shows that modernization does not always require abandoning tradition.
Surviving the Pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic presented one of the most serious challenges in the restaurant’s history.
Like thousands of restaurants across the United States, Eng’s had to adjust quickly to restrictions on indoor dining, staffing difficulties, health concerns, and unpredictable customer demand.
Its dining room remained closed for approximately five years while the restaurant continued operating through takeout and delivery.
That period could easily have ended the business.
Independent restaurants generally operate with narrow profit margins, and many lack the financial reserves of larger chains. Extended dining-room closures can reduce revenue while expenses such as rent, utilities, equipment, insurance, and payroll continue.
Eng’s survived by relying on customer loyalty and adapting its service model.
In February 2025, the restaurant reopened its dining room. The return of indoor service was treated as a community event rather than simply an operational change.
For longtime customers, reopening meant regaining a familiar gathering place.
For the Sit family, it represented the survival of a business that had endured nearly a century of economic and social change.
A Television Appearance Introduced Eng’s to New Audiences
Eng’s also experienced renewed attention after appearing in the Apple TV series Severance, which filmed portions of its second season in the Hudson Valley.
The appearance placed the restaurant in front of viewers who may never have visited Kingston or heard of Eng’s.
The restaurant later participated in events connected to the series and saw strong demand for limited merchandise.
This type of exposure can transform a small business’s visibility almost overnight. However, attention alone does not create a lasting institution.
Eng’s attracted interest because it already had a story, a recognizable space, and decades of community support.
The television appearance did not manufacture the restaurant’s character. It introduced a wider audience to something Kingston residents already valued.
The James Beard America’s Classics Award
In February 2026, the James Beard Foundation announced that Eng’s would receive an America’s Classics Award.
The award recognizes independently owned restaurants with lasting appeal, strong community roots, and meaningful connections to local cultural traditions.
Eng’s joined a national group of restaurants celebrated for representing the communities they serve rather than following a single definition of fine dining.
The award was formally presented during the James Beard Awards ceremony in Chicago on June 15, 2026.
For Eng’s, the recognition was significant because it acknowledged more than food quality.
It honored endurance.
It recognized the Eng and Sit families, nearly a century of customer relationships, the restaurant’s place in Kingston, and the broader importance of Chinese American restaurant culture.
Large awards often focus on celebrity chefs, innovative tasting menus, or luxury dining. The America’s Classics category instead draws attention to institutions built through consistency, accessibility, and community trust.
What Entrepreneurs Can Learn From Eng’s
Eng’s offers several lessons for entrepreneurs in almost any industry.
The first is that longevity depends on relationships. A business that lasts for generations usually offers more than a transaction. Customers return because they feel connected to the people, atmosphere, and memories associated with it.
The second is that authenticity does not require remaining frozen in time. Eng’s preserved its identity while adopting delivery, social media, merchandise, and new forms of community engagement.
The third is that family businesses need participation from different generations. Younger family members can help with technology, branding, and communication while older generations preserve knowledge, standards, and institutional memory.
The fourth is that small businesses can become cultural institutions. A restaurant does not need hundreds of locations to have national significance. Its influence may come from how deeply it serves one community.
The Importance of Supporting Minority-Owned Businesses
Supporting minority-owned businesses is not only about representation.
These businesses often preserve cultural knowledge, create local employment, support immigrant families, and provide services that larger companies may overlook.
They can also face challenges that are not distributed equally.
Minority entrepreneurs may encounter difficulty accessing startup capital, commercial property, professional networks, government contracts, and financial guidance. Immigrant owners may additionally confront language barriers, unfamiliar legal systems, and limited access to traditional financing.
Long-standing businesses can face another problem: succession.
A restaurant may remain beloved, but ownership must eventually pass to another generation or buyer. Without careful planning, decades of knowledge and community history can disappear.
Eng’s longevity demonstrates what can happen when ownership, family participation, community loyalty, and cultural identity reinforce one another.
Why Eng’s Fits the New To Education Spotlight Series
New To Education highlights businesses that offer more than commercial success.
Eng’s represents Chinese American history, immigrant perseverance, multigenerational entrepreneurship, and community education.
Its story helps readers understand how restaurants can become historical archives.
The food reflects adaptation. The dining room holds community memories. The family history connects international migration with local identity. The business itself demonstrates lessons in leadership, resilience, and customer trust.
For students and educators, Eng’s can also serve as a starting point for discussions about immigration history, entrepreneurship, cultural exchange, family business succession, and the evolution of American food.
The restaurant’s story shows that education does not occur only in schools.
Communities teach through the institutions they preserve.
Key Takeaways
Eng’s Chinese Restaurant has served Kingston, New York, since 1927 and is widely recognized as the city’s first Chinese restaurant.
Tom and Faye Sit, Chinese immigrants who have operated the restaurant for decades, helped transform it into a multigenerational family institution.
The business survived major cultural and economic changes, including the COVID-19 pandemic and a prolonged dining-room closure.
Its appearance in Severance introduced the restaurant to new audiences, while the 2026 James Beard America’s Classics Award recognized its national cultural importance.
Eng’s demonstrates how minority-owned businesses can preserve heritage, create community connections, and remain relevant without abandoning the qualities that made them special.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Eng’s Chinese Restaurant located?
Eng’s is located at 726 Broadway in Kingston, New York.
When did Eng’s open?
The restaurant opened in 1927 and has served the Kingston community for nearly a century.
Who owns Eng’s today?
The restaurant is owned by Tom and Faye Sit, who have operated it for several decades.
What type of food does Eng’s serve?
Eng’s serves classic Chinese American cuisine, including Cantonese- and Szechuan-influenced dishes, fried rice, chow mein, egg rolls, spare ribs, and combination meals.
Did Eng’s receive a James Beard Award?
Yes. Eng’s was selected as a 2026 James Beard Foundation America’s Classics Award winner.
Is Eng’s still open?
Yes. The restaurant currently offers dine-in service, takeout, and delivery, according to its official website.
Final Thoughts
Eng’s Chinese Restaurant is not important merely because it is old.
Its importance comes from what it has carried across nearly a century.
It has preserved family recipes, provided employment, introduced generations of New Yorkers to Chinese American cuisine, and created a place where immigrant history became local history.
Tom and Faye Sit’s journey also reflects a broader American story.
They arrived from another part of the world, worked through uncertainty, raised a family, built relationships, and became deeply connected to the city they chose as home.
Businesses like Eng’s remind us that entrepreneurship is not always measured by rapid expansion, venture funding, or national franchises.
Sometimes success means keeping the doors open, remembering customers’ names, passing knowledge from one generation to the next, and becoming so deeply rooted in a community that the business feels impossible to separate from the place itself.
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Sources
Eng’s Restaurant — Official Website
https://www.engsrestaurant.com/
Eng’s Restaurant — History
https://www.engsrestaurant.com/history-1
Eng’s Restaurant — Dine In and Ownership Information
https://www.engsrestaurant.com/dine-in
James Beard Foundation — 2026 America’s Classics Award Winners
https://www.jamesbeard.org/stories/james-beard-americas-classics-award-winners-2026
James Beard Foundation — 2026 James Beard Award Winners
https://www.jamesbeard.org/stories/james-beard-award-winners-2026
Times Union — Born in China, Restaurateur Tom Sit Calls Kingston His Hometown
https://www.timesunion.com/hudsonvalley/food/article/tom-sit-engs-chinese-restaurant-kingston-20286332.php
Times Union — Eng’s Chinese Restaurant Wins James Beard America’s Classics Award
https://www.timesunion.com/hudsonvalley/food/article/engs-chinese-restaurant-wins-james-beard-award-21940662.php
Chronogram — Eng’s Chinese Restaurant Earns James Beard America’s Classics Award
https://www.chronogram.com/food-drink/dining/engs-chinese-restaurant-earns-james-beard-americas-classics-award/
