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Courtesy Abundance Culinary
For the past year, chef Liu Fang and Carl Setzer have made themselves known around town. What began as occasional pop-ups selling buns, dumplings and noodles under the name
Abundance Culinary advanced to weekly two-day residencies at Larder in Ohio City. At those events, and others across town at Rising Star in Cleveland Heights, the pair cultivated a passionate, dedicated following for Fang’s elevated Chinese cooking. The chef leans into our region’s bounty to craft modern interpretations of classic Chinese dishes. Diners on both sides of town have grown fond of items like Chinese sausage-filled dumplings, dry-fried green beans, Shanghai scallion noodles, honey ma wings and Huainan brisket ramen.
Soon, Liu and Setzer’s nomadic days will come to an end. The two recently revealed their plans to set up permanent residence at the diner car on Lee Road.
“We’ve been really motivated by the reactions that we’ve seen from people who are intimately connected through family heritage or experience in Asia and by people that are just coming in blind and are motivated by curiosity,” says Setzer.
Liu, who was born and raised in China, met Setzer, who was born and raised in Northeast Ohio, in China in 2004. Together, they founded the first craft brewery in Beijing and quickly expanded, opening additional bars and brewpubs in the region. Covid drove the pair to Cleveland, where they have lived for the past three years.
“Chinese-American food has had the same flavors for the past 20, 30 years and there’s a love for it,” Liu explains. “But I think it’s time for a change. It so happens that Carl and I were in China running a food and beverage business while China had its big economic development. Being able to bring a concept like craft beer to China using Chinese ingredients, we want to do something similar here but reversed: to bring elevated and modern Chinese flavor to a market where there is an abundance of almost everything, raw material-wise, talent-wise and curiosity from the public.”
Not a team to push things too fast, Lui and Setzer will gradually expand Abundance's hours, days and offerings. Fans will find them at Larder this month for two more Sunday-Monday pop-ups. Simultaneously, they will roll out Friday-Saturday service at Rising Star. In April, they will begin operating Thursday through Sunday. Come summer, those days of service likely will expand to five or six per week. A license for beer and wine is in the works.
In early 2023, the pair elevated their typical pop-up experience in Hingetown by hosting a week of sit-down prix fixe dinners. The sell-out events might offer guests a glimpse of what the future of Abundance could look like in terms of dishes, plating and service at the 38-seat diner.
“One of the reasons why we were so excited to run the week of prix fixe dinners was because it really gave us an idea of how diners were going to react to an experience that was a little more family-style and a little more communal, but still very intimate,” says Setzer. “The lessons we learned from that at the Larder space will push us in how we architect that experience for the diner. We want to give people the feeling that it’s not rushed or temporary but that it’s permanent and is an experience that they can enjoy over and over again.”
The move across town is a bittersweet one for the Abundance team, says Liu.
“Jeremy and Allie [Umansky] have been so generous to give us their kitchen to do weekly pop-ups,” she says. “It’s great working with the two of them, but we’re ready to be able to graduate from their kitchen and move to the diner on Lee Road.”
But the pair isn’t giving up on Ohio City entirely. In a flip-the-script move, they will continue to host one pop-up per month at Larder as a way of showing their appreciation for their loyal fans.
“We want them to still have access to what they helped create with their patronage,” adds Setzer.
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