Updated 3 p.m.
Philly restaurateur Han Chiang is sporting a broken ankle after a scuffle that broke out in front of the Old City outpost of Han Dynasty Thursday night.
Chiang, who was diagnosed with a fractured fibula after friends dropped him off at Penn Hospital, said the injury happened after a verbal back-and-forth with several drunk young adults who had apparently just been kicked out of 2nd Story Brewing right next door.
(A manager at 2nd Story confirmed a group had come in “after a wedding, ordered one beer, and then we cut them off and asked them to leave. They left disgruntled.”)
Per Chiang, around 11 p.m., he and several Han Dynasty employees had been outside on a cigarette break, and were about to go back in when one person from the entourage shouted something like “Ching chong wong” at them.
“I turned around and said, ‘Fuck you, you racist motherfucker,’” Chaing recalled in a phone interview Friday. “The guy denied saying it, then his friend Ian jumped in and hit me with a skateboard.” Chiang kicked the skateboard, he said, “and then he started in on me.” The fight escalated, with multiple people joining in. At some point in the melee, Chiang’s ankle was broken.
There is no police record of the altercation, per a spokesperson from the PPD’s Sixth District, which covers Old City.
The person who allegedly hit Chiang with the skateboard, Ian Carroll, then went on Facebook and posted a note to the Han Dynasty page. According to a screenshot, Carroll blamed the incident on restaurant employees and went on to disparage the restaurant in general, writing [sic]:
“whoever was working at chestnut street in old city philadelphia needs to be fired, the employees are a disgraces. They started a fight and tried to jump myself and the wedding party i was with tonight. You should be ashamed to call yourself a restaurant with your sub par food and terrible customer service.”
Chiang disputes Carroll’s claim that his staff instigated the fracas. “We didn’t start nothing,” he wrote via text. “One of his friend said something racist to us first. We were chilling and minding our own business. He was protecting his racist friend.”
On Facebook, Chiang added an epilogue to the story. In response to Carroll’s message, he wrote: “Oh, and what did you guys scream as you drove past us once the dust was settled? ‘Fuck you, you Chinese faggots.’”
Several commenters on Chiang’s post have indicated that Carroll is himself a restaurant industry employee — his own FB posts indicate he may work at Spruce Street Harbor Park and for Garces Group. Contacted for comment, a Garces Group representative responded with this statement: “Garces does not tolerate discrimination or bigotry within our organization. This type of behavior is unacceptable and does not represent the views of our company.”
Carroll said he felt the whole incident was being overblown.
“It was a small thing being [blown] out of proportion,” he wrote via FB message. “Wish none of it would have happened. I hope han is ok.”
Chiang noted that this is his second injury within a year. “I got jumped by seven guys last November,” he said. Asked whether he has a special knack for finding trouble, he replied, “I just take no racism. Get that shit out of my face.”
