In July, Asheville, North Carolina's restaurant scene welcomed Neng Jr.'s, its first Filipinx restaurant. Chef-owner Silver Iocovozzi has created a restaurant where Filipinx flavors meet North Carolina traditions. There's okra, a Southern must-have, but served in an umami-rich gravy with stewed tomatoes. Lowcountry shrimp find their way into Sinigang, a Filipinx sweet and sour soup. And fried chicken's on the menu-but Iocovozzi smokes it before frying, a nod to the smoke-kissed, open-fire cooking found across the Philippines.
When Iocovozzi first decided to open a Filipinx restaurant, they were concerned about the negative critiques they might receive from their own community. "Filipinx food is such a home-cooked cuisine," they say. "My biggest concern with opening a Filipinx restaurant was that when Filipinx customers come, there'd be a lot of criticism." What has happened, though, is almost the opposite.
"I have had a mixture of young and old Filipinx customers making road trips to come to my restaurant," Iocovozzi says. Diners have been excited to try new interpretations of familiar Filipinx dishes. "I think of the space as a way for old traditions and new ideas to shake hands."
The original idea was for Neng Jr.'s to be a casual affair, taking inspiration from the plate lunch-style meat-and-three restaurants across the South. But the further Iocovozzi got into imagining their restaurant, the more they wanted to try something else, to experiment with a format that would really let Filipinx food shine. "I think meat-and-three service still has the ability to have that 'wow factor,'" says Iocovozzi, "but fine dining has more poise to it, more put-togetherness that I feel Filipinx food truly deserves." It's in that spirit that Iocovozzi created the menu, which ranges from smaller to larger plates, in keeping with current trends of shareable dishes meant to be experienced with friends and family. As for drinks, Iocovozzi's's husband Cherry has curated a beverage program leaning into funky, hard-to-find wines, a standout in this beer-loving city.
"I hope that people can come to Neng's with an open mind about what this interpretation [of Filipinx food] is," says Iocovozzi. It's the culinary embodiment of Iocovozzi's upbringing, growing up in Eastern North Carolina in a Filipinx household.
Before opening Neng Jr.'s, Iocovozzi spent 10 years working at restaurants in both America and the Caribbean, including Danny Bowien's Mission Chinese Food in Manhattan, Palm Heights in the Cayman Islands, and the Asheville mainstay Buxton Hall BBQ. Neng Jr.'s pays homage to Iocovozzi's heritage as a Filipinx-American. And as a trans chef, they hope it will offer a respite from a restaurant culture not known to be especially welcoming to, well, a lot of people who aren't white and cisgendered. In that vein, Neng Jr.'s celebrates queerness as much as it celebrates food. Iocovozzi is intent on building a space that embraces the entirety of their identity.
This Asheville restaurant is as colorful and varied as the menu. Music blares from the open kitchen, switching back and forth between Latin pop, 90s R&B, and hip hop. Mariah Carey's voice competes with the sizzle of the stove. The small kitchen staff (usually Iocovozzi, a bartender, a line cook, and a dishwasher) sing and dance along as they cook. The best seats in the house, of which there are only about 20, are at the bar, where you can smell skewers as they're flame-grilled.
Adjacent to the restaurant's entrance is a painting by Brooklyn-based artist Drake Carr. In the center sits Neneng, Iocovozzi's mother, done up in a way reminiscent of the 80s and 90s glamor-style photos Iocovozzi remembers her posing for at a local mall near where they grew up as a military brat in Jacksonville, North Carolina. Iocovozzi (nickname Neng Jr., hence the restaurant's name), sits just behind their mother's left shoulder, as the yellow ribbon of Neneng's dress wraps around Iocovozzi's arm. Neneng is the thread that runs through Iocovozzi's life, and in many ways, through this restaurant. For Silver, she represents the marriage of Filipinx heritage with North Carolina cuisine that finds its way onto this menu.
"Most of the menu items directly correlate to my mom," Silver explains. "If it isn't an exact replica of a dish that she has made, it is a version that I fine-tuned. I try to stay true to the flavors of my mom." In fact, when Neneng is in town, she's often in the kitchen at Neng Jr.'s. On a recent visit Neneng put a Filipinx spin of the Mexican tripe stew menudo on the menu. It sold out that weekend.
At its very core, Neng Jr.'s is a space where Silver can celebrate their biological family and the queer one they have built. Dining here means sitting below that painting of Iocovozzi and their mother, and eating a plate of fresh summer fruit, or lumpia, or bulalo corn. As customers have filled the snug Asheville restaurant over the past few months, Iocovozzi watches on from the open kitchen. "I see people understanding the concept [of Neng Jr.'s]," they say. "It is the deepest reward."