Riding with Restauranteur Jenn Saesue
Jenn Saesue, Courtesy of Mercedes-Benz USA, Zach Hilty/BFA
Mercedes-Benz Toasts Saesue and AAPI Leaders at The Table
After restauranteur Jenn Saesue failed her first driving test at age 20, she swore off driving cars. That pledge worked for over a decade, until one day during the thick of the pandemic, she realized she had no way to deliver meals to hospitals. It was finally time to relent. As a holiday gift, her husband gave her a series of 20 driving lessons. Fast forward to current day, and Saesue takes my call from behind the wheel of her SUV, where she spends much of her time driving to and from her two very buzzy New York City restaurants.
“I take all my calls, all my meetings in my car, like right now I'm doing it with you,” she says. “I love it and especially having to buy stuff for the restaurant. I move stuff around all the time. Also, my Uber bill was insane.” Saesue is co-owner of two New York City restauranst Fish Cheeks, which opened in 2016, and Bangkok Supper Club, a hotspot that recently earned ink in the Michelin Guide. Both restaurants specialize in Thai fare, a nod to Saesue’s childhood memories and her family’s culture. “I wanted people to like what we are offering and see that there's more to Thai food than just your regular menu staples,” she says. Saesue has a knack for the complexities that modern-day restaurants demand. “I'm really good at putting systems together, like front of house, but at the same time we think of restaurants as a business. Yes, the product has to be amazing, but at the end of the day we have to take care of our people.”
“I take all my calls, all my meetings in my car, like right now I’m doing it with you,”
Next year she will expand to open Bubs, a bakery with Melissa Weller, James Beard-nominated pastry chef. Bubs is Saesue’s husband’s nickname, whose food intolerances inspired the concept. Imagine a menu that is gluten free, dairy free, soy free, nut free, and vegan. “He has all the sensitivities and it's the hardest thing when you're trying to celebrate his birthday. Even if he wants a treat, he can't have it. I don't think there's any bakery that pulls everything together.” Weller, the author of Very Good Bread, a trained chemist, and the former head baker at Per Se, is the ideal partner to make dessert delicious. Also on the docket is the 2025 opening of a Fish Cheeks Williamsburg location, and a bar, and she’s only getting started.
Saesue’s verve for New York City restaurant culture has earned her accolades, but she she’s stayed oblivious to the praise. When Mercedes-Benz approached Saesue about a dinner series called the Table, Saesue assumed it was a catering gig. It was a happy discovery when she learned Mercedes planned to highlight her work in the dining field.
Steamed branzino from Fish Cheeks
“We didn't know about the Table in the beginning, and I thought it they just wanted us to cater a Mercedes event, which we were very happy to do, and then we find out that I would be included.” This edition of the Table series focused on highlighting AAPI community leaders including actor John Cho, Saesue, and artist Kevin Peter He.
“For Mercedes to get involved especially in a minority community, is such a big thing, because they are such a big reputable brand. For them to stand behind us and give us light and shine the light on what we're doing is fantastic.”
I first met Saesue at the Table in midtown Manhattan, where her team’s handiwork was on the menu. Between courses, she appeared on stage in conversation with Mercedes-Benz USA Chief Marketing Officer Melody Lee and He, who shared a recent audiovisual work before dinner was served. Saesue and He spoke about their career paths and the relationship between work and their Asian-American identities. Chef Max Wittawat from Bangkok Supper Cub served a Hokkaido scallop ceviche, blending pickled watermelon rind, diced watermelon and a watermelon granita, a dish that Michelin describes as “impactful and play on dramatic contrasts.” Dustin Everett, the chef at Fish Cheeks, made steamed branzino with chili, lime, cilantro in a cilantro lime broth and lemongrass, turmeric-infused duck in coconut curry. Even in a large group setting, the flavors were explosive and delicious, and left guests scraping plates.
Melody Lee, Jenn Saesue, Kevin Peter He.
“Dustin is a classically trained chef, but he never really cooked Thai food before,” Saesue says. “His willingness to learn our food is incredible. I sent him back to Thailand three times. He went to study with this lady that basically teaches how to cook Thai food like all the Michelin star chefs in Thailand.” Saesue’s first two restaurants are deeply connected to Thailand, where she lived as a toddler until she was 12. Many of her memories from her childhood in Bangkok are centered around the backseat of her parents’ cars, who drove Mazda and Toyota hatchbacks.
“The traffic in Bangkok is terrifying,” she says. “Our dad would wake us up at like five in the morning literally put us in the car, drive to school, and once we got to school parking lot, he'd let us sleep for another hour, all because we wanted to beat the traffic. You wake up you brush your teeth, you change your clothes. In the afternoon, we would leave school at four and I would get home at 7 PM. My mom had to basically stop working and fully take care of us. She was basically just chauffeuring us around all the time.”
When Saesue was 12, the family moved back to New York, and she spent time upstate, learning English from a beloved ESL teacher, and then later attended LaGuardia High School. She still lives in New York, where she’s embedded in the food scene. She opened her first restaurant at age 22, which didn’t make it. But just like driving, Saesue’s not the type to accept failure — quite the opposite. As she and her partners at 55 Hospitality expand their culinary footprint, she’s the one navigating city traffic these days. In more than ways than one, Saesue has her foot on the accelerator.