A one-of-a-kind, 24 hours, restaurant called Brooklyn Dumpling Shop will open at St. Mark’s Place (131 1st Avenue) in the East Village this October. This fully automated restaurant conceptualized by Brooklyn Chop House Director of Operations Stratis Morfogen will bring the Automat of yesteryear into 2020 with advanced Autoflow technology made for today and Zero Human Interaction (ZHI) throughout the entire grab and go process. Brooklyn Dumpling Shop’s state-of-the-art food locker technology from ONDO, powered by Panasonic will provide guests with an easy, safe option to pick up orders from temperature controlled lockers at peak freshness.
"The Automat was single handedly the greatest fast food distribution equipment ever designed. The technology we’re bringing to Brooklyn Dumpling Shop is unlike anything seen before, which will allow us to create an Autoflow from a customers’ cell phone, to our touchless ordering kiosks, right to our lockers to bring quick serve restaurants into the 21st century,” says Brooklyn Dumpling Shop Director of Operations Stratis Morfogen.
Brooklyn Dumpling Shop will feature 32 unique dumpling varieties including Pastrami, Bacon Cheese Burger, Lamb Gyro, French Onion Soup, Philly Cheesesteak, Impossible and Reuben and Peanut Butter & Jelly. Traditional Soup Dumplings such as Matzo Ball soup are featured in addition to Wonton Soup Dumplings you can make your own with a choice of three different broths and dumplings available to mix and match. Indulge in spring rolls as well with options including Lobster Spring Rolls, Veggie and Peking Duck. They will also feature crave-worthy, fast and affordable breakfast dumplings such as the Bacon, Egg & Cheese CRO’ SUMPLINGS with the flakiness of a croissant inside the shape of a dumpling, and Hot & Frozen Dessert Dumplings including Fried Apple and Frozen Hot Chocolate Ice Cream Sundae Dumplings. A variety of beer and wine will also be available. Executive Chef Skinny Mei is the man behind the dumplings, who has been a creative force in the kitchen for over a decade. Mei was born in Beijing, China and came to NYC to begin his career in the restaurant world. He has worked with Stratis Morfogen since 2006.
This one-of-a-kind quick-serve will have the Dumpling Lab in the front window with the restaurant’s dumpling making machine for all to see. Guests will be able to place an order on their phone or via one of the restaurant’s Touchless POS kiosks. When a guest’s order is ready, the customer will receive a text notification to get their special delivery from a marked locker, which will open automatically once the customer scans their barcode. Lockers storing hot food will be red lit indicating it’s 100 degrees, chilled lockers will be blue lit and 28 degrees and auburn lit lockers will indicate one’s at room temperature. This will provide an experience that is Zero Human Interaction from start, to finish.
Restaurateur Stratis Morfogen is the force behind Brooklyn Dumpling Shop, serving as the restaurant’s Director of Operations. He was the partner and owner of several well-known establishments in NYC including Philippe Chow, Club Rouge, Gotham City Diner, Seagrill of the Aegean, Hilltop Diner, Aubar, Sessa and more. Last year, he joined forces with Robert “Don Pooh'' Cummins and Dave Thomas to open Brooklyn Chop House in the Financial District. As Director of Operations, Morfogen took the signatures from Philippe Chow and married them with steakhouse classics. The most popular combination being the LSD, which includes a 2 lb salt and pepper lobster, 2 lb ginger and garlic lobster, 3 lb dry-aged porterhouse steak and 7 lb authentic peking duck. The game changer and the uniqueness of the restaurant's menu came by taking the staples of his father’s Hilltop Diner such as Pastrami, Lamb “Gyro”, Reuben, Philly Cheesesteak, Bacon Cheeseburger and French Onion Soup and turning them into dumplings.
Brooklyn Dumpling Shop will be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Delivery will be offered from all third party platforms. Beer, wine and soda will also be offered along frozen cocktails like a signature Red Velvet and Lychee Frose. Brooklyn Dumpling Shop will also offer mail order gift boxes to customers across the United States.
