Help BONG, a place for Cambodian food in NYC

Hey Bong,

We are opening our first brick and mortar and we need your help to jumpstart this dream project!

BONG is a Khmer term of endearment that means sibling, it can refer to a friend, peer, lover, or a person who is slightly older. In Khmer culture it's a word used daily to acknowledge our connection.

BONG is our first permanent space offering Cambodian food in New York City. It’s the culmination of an eight year project building community through shared curiosity, friendship, and obviously, Khmer food (click here to learn more about KREUNG: https://thisismold.com/profile/kreung-cambodia-is-inspiring-new-food-futures-through-khmer-preservation-techniques).

Kreung has been an effort to redefine our relationship to Cambodian heritage and history. We’ve popped up all around the city, and throughout the world. We made space for Cambodians to celebrate our culture. BONG will now be a home for us to explore what our present and future can look like.

BONG will be a casual dining spot. We will offer our favorite Cambodian staples, like Kuy Teav, Num Pang Paté, Somlor Machu Kreung. We’ve enlisted the help of our NYC Khmer family to direct us towards a menu that will make us feel proud and excited for New York and the world to get to know us.

So, how can you help us?

We’re asking for donations to get us through Phase One. Costs include:

We’ve made estimates of over $100,000, on the low end, without all the unforeseen expenses that are sure to come.

We intend to get business loans to cover all that we need, but for a starting business this might take months to approve and receive funds. We are asking our community, and all that would like to have more delicious Cambodian food available in NYC, to help us get this project started. We don’t want to compromise our vision of offering affordable, delicious, herb-heavy, well sourced food; and we want to begin working on this dream as soon as possible.

Your contributions will help us jump over the red tape and jumpstart this project. If we are able to crowdfund our needs for Phase One, we can start working on the finance and development of Phase 2, which includes menu and product development, design, and staffing. Our dream is to offer the best possible restaurant for Khmer food in NYC and together we can make this a reality.

Thank you to our friends, comrades, collaborators, industry folks for holding it down for us over the past 8 years and inviting us into your spaces. Now we're excited to have a place to hold space for others. Thank you to everyone who is here now contributing to this project. We deeply appreciate your support. We are so excited to feed you, party with you and make a beautiful place for Khmer food in New York City.

With love and gratitude,

BONG NYC

For more info, watch our crowdfunding video:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/AkgaNu-fr00