INTEL: FORMER NEOVISTA HOSPITALITY COO PREPARES TO OPEN 2 DINING CONCEPTS IN DOWNTOWN ALBANY— J.C. HWANG + ROBATA ALBANY
Three months after leaving his role as COO of NeoVista Hospitality, (the group behind the resurrection of Jack’s Oyster House, 60 State, Izakaya Kinko, The Vault, and Cafe 66,) Taiwanese private equities executive John Hwang is back with two restaurants of his own in the downtown Albany space that once housed Dale Miller/Taste.
Coming soon, Hwang’s eponymously named J.C. Hwang, and Robata Albany, an outdoor robatayaki-style grill.
With his new menus online, and an opening expected in a matter of weeks, we caught up with John to get the full story. — SDP
With global, rotating all-day breakfast and lunch menus, authentic Sichuan dishes, and a robatayaki-style outdoor concept, John Hwang is betting on downtown Albany.
Story: Susie Davidson Powell
Rendered design images: Provided.
John, you work in private equities but you are an avid cook, have traveled to over 30 countries, and were actively involved in the culinary side of menu development for Izakaya Kinko + NeoVista Hospitality’s restaurants, right?
JH: Over 50 countries! I love to eat. Food is culture, especially breakfast.
In June of this year, you left NeoVista for what was reported then as health reasons. When did you decide you wanted to open a restaurant of your own and how did you connect with the building owners, Jankow Companies?
JH: Regarding my health, I had surgery on June 25 and it went really well. After 10 days of recovery, I felt restless and wanted to do something; I had been eyeing this restaurant space for over a year and I asked my realtor to make the initial contact with Ryan Jankow and do the preliminary negotiations. Ryan and I quickly reached an agreement and signed the lease on July 28, 2026 with one condition: I had to serve breakfast and lunch from Monday to Friday. This changed my original design to serve fine dining upscale Sichuan dishes. But with this concept, I changed it to a family-style dining experience.
You are opening two restaurant concepts in one space. The eponymously named JC Hwang is an all-day restaurant + the Robata grill is an outside concept, both offering quite different experiences. What inspired you to pursue either concept?
JH: If P.F. Chang's can represent the two owners' name, I will also put my name on the restaurant to let people know that I care about the quality of the food enough to have my name on it. To me, a good dining experience should be fun and create memories.
I want people to experience authentic Classic Sichuan cuisine. Chile pepper was first introduced to China during the Ming Dynasty, so classic Sichuan cuisine is not always spicy and I want to show people those dishes in the 9-Bowl Experience.
As for the Robata Grill, I have always wanted to do something with live fire, like asado, or robatayaki grill. Since I have already done Izakaya Kinko, I thought why not robatayaki? Each table will have a pan filled with sand and coarse sea salt on top, then we put a small grill on top of the sea salt. Live charcoal is inside of the small grill, but the customers can also stick the skewars inside the sand and grill the meat or vegetables, robatayaki-style. Because of code requirements, we need to safeguard the charcoal inside the small grill for safety reasons.
The two experiences will begin when you enter the premises. For Robata Albany, your experience begins when you take your number at the waiting area. Our porter will begin serving you different snacks or appetizers so you are not bored while waiting for your seat, and you can also enter a competition with your friends playing the game machine, or pay a small fee to have your images, or your pet's images, laser carved into stone, metal plates, or glass. You will not be bored. And at J.C. Hwang's Albany, as soon as you are seated, the waiter will present you with a 9-compartment box which contains different appetizers or small dishes for you to try. We will just keep feeding you since it is all-you-can-eat. You won't be bored while waiting for your food.
You plan to offer global cuisines via a daily rotation of dishes on the menu. Have you seen this model elsewhere + you hoping this will ensure repeat customers with constantly changing options?
Since we have a very specific targeted audiences, we want to make sure they are not bored by the same food everyday. The employees of the surrounding office buildings, apartment buildings and people taking the buses are our main audience. I will try to offer them different cuisine so they can "travel" with me. I also want to make sure that our prices are reasonable. We offer both dine-in and take-out services. Since it is all-you-can-eat, those who don't have time to dine in can take as much food as they can fit in the provided large box, as long as they can close the lid. We don't weigh the box—it is not fair to the customers. Hopefully, with this concept, more people will be willing to come in and try our food.
You’re opening in late fall and your outdoor robota concept is outdoors with customers grilling meats over the open fire. Will this be open all winter? Won’t customers be cold?!
Yes, Robata Albany will be open year-round. Since we have live fire inside the pergola, it will be warm. We will also have a large fire pit in the center of the courtyard to keep people warm while waiting.
Who is your primary chef or culinary team?
Chef Nick Parker is my Culinary Director. He will lead a team of four cooks, two for the breakfast & lunch shift, and two for the dinner service. All of our chefs are local from this region. We don't have any Chinese chefs in the kitchen. Since I was already able to teach the Izakaya Kinko chefs to cook Japanese, I can train my new team to cook Sichuan dishes!
