BACK in the day, when Chinatown was just three mean streets, Doyers was the kink in it, a dogleg alley barely 200 yards long, its tenements riddled with fan-tan houses and opium dens, its cobbles sweating whiskey and camphor. The tongs went at it down there with hatchets and snickersnees, rival gangs of fallen men with names like Mock Duck and Girl Face.
The sharp, ambush-prone bend in Doyers had a name, too: Bloody Angle. Herbert Asbury made it forever noir in “The Gangs of New York”: “The police believe, and can prove it so far as such proof is possible, that more men have been murdered at the Bloody Angle than at any other place of like area in the world.”
It still feels eerie, even on a Sunday at noon. The rest of Chinatown heaves, but on Doyers Street it’s hushed, the way the city is never hushed.
Nom Wah Tea Parlor opened on Doyers in 1920, at No. 15, right on the angle. In 1968, it moved next door, to No. 13. There it remains, credibly the first and certainly the longest-surviving place for dim sum in Chinatown. After a modest renovation last year, mostly to its aged kitchen, it reopened in January under a new proprietor, Wilson Tang, a nephew of the previous owner.
Mr. Tang stands 6-foot-5 and looks a decade younger than his 32 years. He left a job in finance to take over Nom Wah from his uncle, Wally Tang, who started working there in 1950, at age 16, and bought it in 1974. He retired last year, but, his nephew said, he’s keeping a watchful eye.
Young Mr. Tang has left the ambience of the restaurant largely untouched. (Good boy.) Outside is the same faded red-and-yellow awning and the same faded red sign with Nom Wah’s name in yellow script, above blocks of Chinese characters like oversize mahjong tiles. Porcelain lucky cats wave from the window.
Inside are yellow walls and red booths, each with a coat stand and a red-and-white-checked tablecloth. There are the requisite autographed head shots: Woody Allen, Chow Yun-fat, and, for young folks, Kirsten Dunst and Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
The big change: no more ladies with metal carts. The dim sum is made to order. (The exception is certain Sunday afternoons, when the crowds become restive and the cooks become nervous.)
There used to be no menu. Then, perhaps as a concession to outsiders, the names of dishes (nine total) were scrawled on the back of a business card. Now there’s a neatly printed bilingual bill of fare with more than 50 choices. Circle your items and the waitress will soon return bearing plates and steamer baskets.
Tea is poured into mismatched cups, a collection dating back a half-century. (Be gentle.) There is a separate tea bar, with Tiffany-blue shelves, padded metal stools and cake stands stacked with almond cookies the size of Krispy Kremes. Made-to-order pays off: everything tastes fresh. The egg roll ($3.50) is wrapped in an egg crepe and then battered, which keeps the filling moist while it is deep-fried. Shrimp and snow-pea-leaf dumplings ($3.50) pop brightly in the mouth. The classics are well represented: delicate pleated har gow ($3.50), craggy and half-exploded shiu mai ($3.50), slippery cheong fun, rice-noodle rolls ($2.50 to $4.95).
Char siu bao, roast pork buns, are enormous, puffy and as white as the moon. They are more bun than pork, so take a big bite. They may not resemble their celebrity counterparts at Momofuku and Baohaus, but they come two for $1, the same price they were two decades ago.
Can you find better dim sum in Flushing and Sunset Park? Sure. But sometimes it’s not just about the food. Respect your elders. The chef has been cooking here for more than 30 years. The waitresses dole out English gingerly. Maybe you should learn their language.
This is old, old city, time out of time, sun leaking in from the near deserted street, turning everything pale yellow. All right, there is a menacingly chic bar down the block and a slick Mexican place set to open next door. But Nom Wah is still here.
Let’s keep it that way.
Nom Wah Tea Parlor
13 Doyers Street (Bowery), (212) 962-6047, nomwah.com.
RECOMMENDED DISHES Shrimp and snow-pea-leaf dumplings, har gow, shrimp and pork shiu mai, egg-battered fried egg roll, roast pork buns.
PRICES $1 to $9.95.
CREDIT CARDS All major cards.
HOURS Daily, 10:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.
WHEELCHAIR ACCESS Dining room is accessible, but restrooms are not.
RESERVATIONS Not accepted, except for parties of 10 or more.