Why I’ll Never Forget a Questlove DJ Set
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Sam Yoo is the chef-owner behind Golden Diner, a critically acclaimed restaurant in New York. He is also behind the recently opened NY Kimchi and Golden HOF, and works with a music curator on all three restaurants’ playlists to make sure that the vibes are just right.
On Wednesday, May 7, 2025, Sam Yoo will collaborate with Questlove on a four-course dinner at NY Kimchi and Golden HOF as part of The Resy Dream Team Dinners series. Get tickets here (terms apply).
I look at this photo from that night and I’m like, “Damn, I look like a little spring chicken.” It was taken almost exactly 10 years ago, the night I experienced an unforgettable DJ set. And now, 10 years later, I get to collaborate with the musician behind it all: Questlove. Yes, the man, the legend. But let’s rewind a little.
In April 2015, I was 29 years old and in flux. After a year of helping chefs Rich [Torrisi] and Mario [Carbone] open Dirty French in the Lower East Side, I was working alongside my dad at New York Kimchi — the same restaurant that we reimagined and reopened together with Golden HOF in February this year.
Back in 2015, the space was still owned and operated by my dad as a traditional Korean restaurant, and we’d been flirting with the idea of working together, of me potentially taking it over. But I was very quickly realizing that, maybe, this wasn’t the right track for me right now. Working so closely with family is tough (my dad was doing things in a very “first-generation immigrant” way), and I was considering my next steps after having worked with Major Food Group the last seven years. I was ambitious. At the time, the idea of what would become Golden Diner was just a seed that felt like a faraway dream, and I was still figuring things out. Cut to: that night.
By all accounts, it was a random Monday. I was hanging out with my friends at my apartment in Chinatown, trying to figure out what to do later, when one of us remembered: “Isn’t Questlove playing a free set tonight at S.O.B.’s? Should we go?”
An immediate “F*ck yeah!” followed.
We walked over to the far edge of West Houston to S.O.B.’s and stepped in, only to find the space mostly empty. “Questlove’s a legend. Why aren’t more people here?” we whispered amongst ourselves.
But suddenly the man himself shows up, and he just starts spinning. It was transcendent. I was just dancing and really feeling the music. I couldn’t believe what I was experiencing. Every transition and song he queued just made perfect sense, and I didn’t even know half the tunes. It was like everything he knew about music was on full display, like he was pouring his soul out, just for us. And for him to give it his all on a random Monday night, to a half-packed room no less … it really moved me.
It was one of those nights out that stays with you. To watch a master at work is an easy way to feel inspired to become the best at what you could do, and to continue to love doing it. I left wanting to make sure that I never stopped learning and never stopped growing. To be a master in my own lane, no matter who or how many people are watching.
Shortly after, I started writing the business plan for Golden Diner, dreaming up what my very first restaurant could be. And I just went for it. I did a lot of private chef gigs — I’d been private cheffing since my line cook days at Torrisi, but I really went hard this time, just trying to save money, network, and meet potential investors. On the side, whenever Rich or Mario needed me, I was their guy — I’d help them here and there for a month or three, opening The Pool with them in 2017 and The Lobster Club later that year. I was hustling and juggling all these things. And it paid off.
For him to give it his all on a random Monday night, to a half-packed room no less … It really moved me.— Sam Yoo on Questlove
On March 29, 2019, Golden Diner opened its doors, and the team and I showed up every single day and gave it our all, no matter how empty or packed the dining room was. And that paid off: Within the year, we’d been nominated for a James Beard Award for Best New Restaurant. And six years later, I was finally ready to take over my family’s restaurant, and opened the dual concepts of Golden HOF and NY Kimchi in February 2025.
It’s a full circle moment: 10 years ago, I stood in the same space with my dad, feeling unsure about myself and my work. I couldn’t have imagined that a decade later, I’d be collaborating on a dinner with an artist I truly admire. Quest showed me that it doesn’t matter how many people show up, as long as they dance their a**es off — it’s what’s kept me cooking, dreaming up businesses, and collaborating with my team members every day. If I can love doing what I do and give it my all, hopefully people leave feeling more inspired than they came.
As told to Noëmie Carrant, Resy’s Brooklyn-based senior writer and editor.
