Welcome to Black Dragon.
The brainchild of Chef Kurt Evans, this West Philly eatery has a self-designed twist on “Black American Chinese” takeout and dining in. Located at 52nd and Rodman streets, what Black Dragon represents, and who Evans is, comes down to his vision of “food-is-culture,” something that is as much a model for Black life and Black futures, as it is for Black American Chinese takeout.
Many might know Evans for his End Mass Incarceration dinner series and owning-operating Down North Pizza as a place where the once-incarcerated can find employment with purpose. Now, the civic-minded Evans returns to West Philly with Black Dragon.
At the colorful, comfortable Black Dragon, once-too-familiar (and culturally insulting) accoutrements of bulletproof glass are gone, egg rolls are happily filled with collard greens, and General Roscoe takes over the culinary command post from General Tso when it comes to sweet-and-spicy chicken.
“When I started doing End Mass Incarceration dinners, I also had my own place, Route 23 Café at Germantown and Park that was burgers, wings, fries,” recalls Evans.
But when it came to further redefining Philadelphia’s Chinese takeout — its food and its vibe — Evans was inspired by fellow chef Tim Ma from Washington DC’s culturally-refreshed restaurant, Lucky Danger, along with what Chinese stores and restaurants in urban neighborhoods have been since his youth.
“Chinese takeouts in the hood have a different style of service than other takeout spots,” says Evans. “Many Chinese stores and restaurants are closing, because Chinese-Americans, they’re here for ‘the American dream.’ As generations get older, the offspring go for different jobs and don’t take these locations on as their own anymore.
“When those places close, it leaves a void – they were there strategically, in the first place, as not many restaurants would open in urban neighborhoods.”
Such closings left opportunities for mindful entrepreneurs such as Evans who is now looking to further redefine Chinese cuisine as “Black American Chinese food” in other local gentrifying hot spots that often left Chinese family-owned businesses behind.
“Our business model is that we don’t want to open a Black Dragon in anything that wasn’t a former Chinese store or restaurant,” says Evans.
Of his current Black Dragon – featuring explosive artwork and décor designed to look like cinematic imagery from the 1970s and 80s (The Black Dragon is, famously, a 1985 kung-fu movie) – Evans crafts zesty Black twists on Chinese traditions.
“I wanted to draw lines and make connections through the way that things have been presented in the past starting with General Roscoe’s Chicken, which is my play on General Tso, but with a learning opportunity. Our dish features a sweet, St. Louis barbecue sauce and General Roscoe Robinson was the first Black Four-Star General, and he was from St. Louis.”
Black Dragon’s menu features a twist on sweet-and-sour chicken, but now as sweet potato sour chicken with pineapple juice, ketchup and yams slurried into a candied-yam-like sauce. The Sichuan Dandan minced pork noodle dish tradition is now called “Man Man” noodles by Evans, but with lamb, peanut sauce and green onions. Collard greens appear in fried rice dishes and egg rolls.
“We just added shrimp fried rice because we have people coming in here thinking that we’re a traditional Chinese store,” Evans says, laughing.
Black Dragon’s dumplings are filled with mac & cheese and jerk chicken. Egg Foo Yung, a dish that was created by first-gen Chinese-Americans in their wish to appeal to omelet-breakfast lovers, is done at Black Dragon with an etouffee crawfish gravy dedicated to New Orleans.
“We have one menu item that’s Chinese and Black America and around since the 1940s, YakaMein, a New Orleans dish for the Chinese laborers and Blacks who helped build Louisiana. They worked and inhabited space together and this beef dish shows the creativity of that.”
Black Dragon has seats, indoors and outdoors, along with countertop dining space and open bathrooms, something Evans designed intentionally, as bulletproof glass and zero bathroom availability has long been the norm.
“We took our partitions and most of our doors down to allow greater access,” Evans says. “If you go downtown and do business, you have to be very mindful of HOW you do business. I take that approach to the places where I will and won’t do business. I want to do business in communities that I grew up in, communities that look like me, communities that had the same barriers – we do a lot of second-chance hiring along with first-chance hiring of youths.
“With the food that I serve, it’s about being culturally relevant to the community. That’s important to everything that I serve, whether it’s pizza, pasta or Chinese food.”
Black Dragon is located at 5620 Rodman Street. For information, visit blackdragontakeout.
