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Roll and Dough aims to build on bings

By Farnoosh Torabi | Special to amNewYork

October 9, 2006

From Magnolia's frosted cupcakes to Gray's Papaya hot dogs, Beard Papa's cream puffs and Pommes Frites' Belgian fries, New York has a diverse palette of one-hit edible wonders.

Now, Roll and Dough's bings are fast-climbing the city's food celebrity chain.

The Chinese restaurant¹s chewy, sesame-sprinkled pocket breads come filled with your choice of vegetables, meat or even sweet bananas.

Roll and Dough owner Elizabeth Ting, an immigrant from China's Fujian Province, prices the bing at under $2 and sells about 3,000 of them a day -- mostly to penny-pinching NYU students and late-night partiers in the cafe's Greenwich Village neighborhood.

Roll and Dough is located at 135 W. 3rd St., across the way from a McDonald's. Ting said it's a perfect location because while the burger joint attracts diners who are not looking to spend too much on a meal, they may be swayed to cross the street for a healthy, low-cost alternative to a Big Mac.

Roll and Dough expects to make available all its foods' nutritional facts before the end of the year.

Sales, Ting said, have doubled since August, Roll and Dough's first month in business. However, she said, the first month was heavy on promotions and involved lots of free samples.

"We are spending a lot on marketing. It will probably be three years until we make our investment back," she said.

The 60-year-old mother of four is a self-described student of the bing. Ting has been quietly offering the doughy treats on menus for the last 15 years while running several other Chinese restaurants in the city, experimenting with flavors and getting feedback from diners. Not until now did she sense the time was ripe to give bings a solo act.

"The market has a demand for fast and healthy food that's cheap," said Ting, whose recipe calls for strict use of vegetable oil and grilling instead of frying.

Now grocery stores want to sell bings in their frozen food aisles and companies want them for catered events. Ting, however, said she is not interested in turning bings into a mass market commodity -- at least not yet.

Instead, the former Chinatown social worker is focusing on using her hand-made bings as food for improving the employment picture for the city's Chinese immigrants, women and other minorities.

In the evenings, Ting hosts seminars for working moms and others who may be interested in opening a Roll and Dough of their own. She is currently in the market for another space near Columbia University.

Eventually, Ting plans to start a foundation through Roll and Dough where 2% of net earnings go toward training workers.

Farnoosh Torabi is a video correspondent for thestreet.com. amSmallBusiness@gmail.com.