Philly’s top Tibetan restaurant was set to expand to Montco. Then its building caught fire.
"The building may be gone, but our dream is not," wrote the owners of White Yak, who were weeks away from opening a second Tibetan restaurant in East Norriton before a fire razed it.
The dining tables were already inside the East Norriton building where the owners of White Yak Restaurant planned a second location when a fire ripped through the roof earlier this month.
Chef-owner Treley Parshingtsang’s husband, a contractor by trade, made the tables by hand. The couple was about six weeks from opening what would have been Montgomery County’s only Tibetan restaurant.
“I have so many packages that my brother shipped all the way from Tibet for the decorations,” she said through tears.
White Yak Restaurant’s Roxborough location has drawn a loyal following and critical acclaim for its spicy momo dumplings, hand-ripped noodles, and housemade sausage. It’s been a regular on The Inquirer’s 76 best restaurants in the region.
Opening the first restaurant, at 6118 Ridge Ave., took six and a half years of work, Parshingtsang said, and her family had been working on the East Norriton location for four. The couple bought the building in 2021, property records show.
The fire broke out Sept. 5 at the 123 W. Germantown Pike building, White Yak Restaurant wrote on social media last week. Images show flames pouring from the roof of the 6,000-square-foot structure across from Friendly’s.
Though insurance and fire inspectors have surveyed the damage, the cause of the fire is still unknown, Parshingtsang said in an interview. The electricity wasn’t turned on, and the doors were locked.
Parshingtsang is hopeful they can save the basement and first floor, but she’s worried about the rain pouring in from the open roof.
“That building is very special for us,” she said. “We have a lot of memories.”
The news drew messages of support, including from Montgomery County Commissioner Neil Makhija.
“[I] was so excited to welcome the White Yak Restaurant,” Makhija wrote on social media. “Their Roxborough restaurant is a favorite for our family.”
It’s too early to tell when White Yak will be ready to resume expansion plans, Parshingtsang said, but her family wrote in a statement on the restaurant’s social media page that they’re determined to move forward: “The building may be gone, but our dream is not.”
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