Kevin Tang, Sous Chef and Pop-Up Pioneer

Like many other chefs who found themselves unmoored from their full-time jobs when dining rooms closed in March 2020, Nari sous chef Kevin Tang decided to launch his very own San Francisco pop-up, called Claws of Mantis, with three close friends and fellow cooks — Kris Hoang, Shane Sardina, and Dan Kanzler. 

“I wanted to showcase Vietnamese food beyond pho and banh mi,” Tang says. “Before the pandemic, it was just always drunken bar talk. The shutdown was the push I needed to actually make it happen. Watching all these cooks doing super delicious, super cool pop-ups was inspiring, and I wanted in.” 

Restaurants and cooking have always been central to Tang, whose parents owned a Chinese American takeout spot while he was growing up. “My mom was the chef, and she was a badass at the wok.” For Tang, a Vietnamese American who grew up on the east side of San Jose, Claws of Mantis is his attempt to “recreate food memories of growing up as a Millennial, first-generation Asian American.” 

One year after the pandemic first struck, Tang is still a sous chef at Nari, but he’s looking forward to owning a restaurant of his own, soon. His story of the past 12 months follows.