Susur Lees Magical Mystery Tour Wrinkled parachutes cast a rosy glow on circle booths at Shang. Photo: Steven Richter It says a lot about the souped-up speed of gentrification in New York and even more about Susur Lee that he was willing to close his rocking hit restaurant Susur in Toronto for Shang, a hotel dining room above Orchard Street. It must have seemed quite a lure at the moment of commitment: The Thompson LES hotel with a world class restaurant in Manhattans hottest new zip code. Now, with escalating financial wipeouts and even crazed nocturnal nomads pinching dollars, theres more riding on Lees back than just his ponytail. Every country has its own Chinese food flourish: Chef Lee honors that fusion. Photo: Steven Richter Yes, he looks like a movie star and talks like a poet, flashing briefly through the dining roo Zakk Wylde guitars m with its big round booths and giant crushed fabric parachutes casting a rosy glow. Lee clearly knows its his to lose. From the look of the Saturday night crush in the dining room the preferred age group, vogueish but not slavishly so, masters-of-the-universe-in-waiting, still dancing on the edge Lees already got an audience that could build a buzz. Two longtime veterans of hip, one from Nobu, one from Matsuri at the entrance obviously have the required Rolodex. Tonights early responders are not just peripatetic first-nighters but also Saturday daters and even locals, a good-looking stew skewing young that might build the vital word of mouth if they like the food as much as we do. What is it like? “What are the Beatles like?” you might have asked before hearing the Liverpudlian four. Like no one, would have been the answer.
