Mr Bing: Rockland native brings Chinese street food to Manhattan

A Rockland County native has exploded onto the New York City food scene over the last year with food carts selling a new world version of a Far East treat.

Meet Brian Goldberg, Ramapo High School's Class of '95 valedictorian and the founder of Mr Bing, a kiosk and catering company that sells jianbing—savory-style crepes that are a breakfast staple in Northern China.

On a recent Friday afternoon, lunchtime customers were lined up 10 deep at his newly opened Mr Bing stall inside the Urbanspace Vanderbilt food hall in Manhattan. Located just two blocks from Grand Central Terminal, the upscale food court attracts a steady mix of office workers and tourists looking for an upgrade from the typical bodega sandwich. Think: lobster rolls, smoked meats, cold-pressed juices, Japanese ramen, and, now, jianbing.

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"I've never had one before but I've heard great things," says Lisa Gorby, as she peers through the plexiglass window between her and the cook preparing her meal.

The response is a typical one. Goldberg says his customers are split between those who grew up with jianbing and feel a sense of nostalgia buying one, and those who are adventurous eaters who quickly fall in love with it.

"I tasted jianbing for the first time while I was studying in Beijing in college," says Goldberg of the mung bean and rice flour crepes filled with scrambled eggs, sesame seeds, herbs, wontons and crispy chili paste. “We would get them from these women across the street from the school and I always thought that they would be great to bring back to the U.S.”

Yet, the road to becoming an entrepreneur would be a long and winding one.

A pre-med student turned Chinese film studies major at Brandeis University, Goldberg went on to receive a Masters from Columbia University in East Asian languages and cultures—and even wrote a preliminary business plan while there for the Mr Bing concept.

But when he moved to Japan after graduation, it wasn’t to further his academic career or conduct culinary reconnaissance: it was to train as an Olympic-level luge racer.

Pursuing a longtime dream, Goldberg ultimately became a qualifier for the 2002 Salt Lake City games, representing Israel as a dual citizen. But he was shut out of the competition when the country decided to send a much smaller team of athletes at the last minute.

On the heels of that disappointment, Goldberg switched gears again to become a successful TV producer in Singapore, followed by years as an investment banker in Taiwan and Hong Kong.

“In 2012, I was working at the bank on the trading floor but the finance industry wasn’t as exciting as it used to be,” recalls Goldberg. “I have an entrepreneurial spirit and march to the beat of my own drummer, and I wanted to leave something behind after I’m gone that is tangible, something that you can see and eat and taste. My brain changed and it was time for me to make something.”

After convincing one of his favorite Beijing vendors, Mrs. Ban, to teach him how to make jianbing, Goldberg threw himself into perfecting the recipe for a new audience.

“In China, jianbing is a breakfast food and they mostly do the vegetarian version or put in a piece of crappy sausage like a hot dog,” he says. “The vegetarian version is fantastic all day long but, in New York, we thought that we needed to have meat options as well.”

To wit, in addition to the “Original Beijing Style,” Mr Bing’s menu offers three carnivorous fillings: roasted Peking duck, BBQ pork, and “drunken” chicken that’s been marinated in a Shaoxing wine sauce. For now, the bings are only available for lunch and dinner service. But Goldberg has plans to expand to morning variations and dessert bings as well.

His mother, Ronna Goldberg, is already a champion of the latter.

“Ronna likes the Nutella-filled one because she likes sweet things — but technically that’s not on the menu yet,” says Steve Goldberg, Brian’s father and a 30-year Yonkers schoolteacher, who retired with his wife from Spring Valley to Lake Worth, Florida.

“I like the chicken one the best," he continues. "But they’re all good. It’s a real show watching them get made!”

The first Mr Bing jianbings that appeared in New York City were sold out of food carts at various festivals and events, eventually claiming the distinction of “2016 Rookie of the Year” at the Vendy Awards.

Now, having installed the Mr Bing kiosk at the front entrance of Urbanspace Vanderbilt, he sells 200 to 300 bings per day from five hustling griddles. This spring, he plans to open a brick and mortar store in Chelsea that will act as headquarters, with more kiosks, carts and catering trucks on the horizon.

“I dream really big and I want to be known as the guy who made bings a well-known food in this country,” says Goldberg, musing that the Hudson Valley may someday even get an outpost. “It would be cool to bring a Mr Bing to Palisades mall or have a cart or kiosk in the area. Rockland is really where I grew up, so that would be a special thing to me.”

Naturally, in his parents’ eyes, he’s already achieved greatness.

“The thing that makes us proudest of him,” says Steve Goldberg of his son, “is that he really takes the bull by the horns and has this unbelievable tenacity to not give up and follow through on things.”

“And he’s a wonderful person, a good human being,” chimes in Ronna Goldberg. “As busy as he is, there’s always time for Mom and Dad.”

Go: 230 Park Ave. at 45th St., Manhattan 646-678-8879; mr-bing.com

Twitter: @joannaprisco