What kind of tale would An American Tragedy be if nobody had died? Or Hamlet, if the prince kept on sulking around into middle age? Such is the literary problem facing the Times' Eric Asimov today. His beloved Mei Lai Wah Coffee House, for which he wrote a moving elegy, may actually reopen, Eater reports. The coffeehouse will live to see another day, “No Spitting” sign and all. New York may be losing its soul, but it won’t give up the ghost overnight.

EaterWire AM Edition: Mei Lai Wah to Rise from the Dead?? [Eater]
Related: Elegy for a Chinatown Coffeehouse

We have to admit that we saw news of the Meh Lai Wah Coffee House's closing with a kind of frigid indifference. Another Chinatown bun shop we've never been to shutters; who cares? But now, after reading Eric Asimov's eloquent post at the Pour, we see the folly of our way. For Asimov, the closing of Meh Lai Wah is a huge loss, a place of irreplaceable character and personality that also happened to have pork buns that were "glossy and pliable, with a savory, slightly sweet filling, and you could get three for $2." The brand-new, Philippe Starck–designed cafés and lounges can stand up to any amount of Health Department attention, but it's the small, ancient niches — the Meh Lai Wahs, the Di Faras, the Eisenbergs — that actually contain the city's vestigial soul. The Health Department, in its way, is as dangerous to New York as inflation and far more so than any stray microbe that might be floating around the kitchen at Veniero's. Such draconian precautions make it hardly even worthwhile to be healthy. Kudos to Eric Asimov for his stirring defense of dirt, character, and char siu bao.

Farewell, My Love Pork Buns [Pour/NYT]