× Expand Photo by Jade Wilson Michael Chuong

MC Modern Asian Cuisine

324 S. Academy St., Cary | 919-650-1738

As Cary begins work on its new downtown park, just across the street, one of the city’s oldest buildings is taking on a new life.

Michael Chuong’s MC Modern Asian Cuisine is taking over the historic Sam-Jones House at the corner of Walnut and Academy, next to the Cary Arts Center. The restaurant is slated to open for dinner on February 11.

“There’s not enough fine dining or unique restaurants in this area, and that’s what we want to provide,” says Chuong, formerly the executive chef at the now-closed An Cuisines and the executive chef and owner of Elements Restaurant & Wine Bar in Chapel Hill.

A modest Queen Anne-style cottage with a wraparound porch, the house was built in 1902 and acquired by the town in 2011. In 2017, the building gained historic-landmark status; that year, Chuong entered into a 10-year lease with the town. It had previously been occupied by the Southern farm-to-table restaurant Belle, which closed in 2016 after failing to pay sales taxes. Chuong says that, at just over 2,000 square feet, MC will be the smallest space he’s ever operated.

Chuong’s family fled communist Vietnam when he was 15, first to a Singaporean refugee camp and then, several moves later, to New Orleans. There he studied architecture and worked in the kitchens of the InterContinental Hotel as a side job. The culinary arts snapped into place as his sole focus, though, and he worked in hotels and restaurants around the city. In 1997, he moved to Cary and began work as an executive chef at the Prestonwood Country Club, where he remained for nearly a decade before opening An in 2006. Compared to these efforts, MC Asian Cuisine is a smaller project, but he expects it to be lively.

“I’ve always wanted a restaurant in a classical, fun setting,” Chuong says. “It’s the intimacy, it’s the history here. I will work as long as my health allows. Cooking is a passion. I will keep coming up with new dishes and exploring new techniques and flavors.”

Chuong plans to split his time between MC and Elements, whose menu features a high-end mix of European and East Asian culinary styles. At MC, he says, the smaller digs will require a more dynamic menu.

“The kitchen is small so it cannot provide a lot. So that means we will have a smaller menu, and we will have to change it so people don’t get bored,” Chuong says. “But that’s also good for us. It’s good to change up our dishes, and we can use seasonal products.”

As for what customers can expect, Chuong says it will be in line with what he’s offered at Elements—Asian-style seafood and French-style vegetables—but it will also include more high-end sushi, with a starting menu that features Japanese seafood and wagyu beef.

Under Chuong’s direction, the Sam-Jones house is getting a makeover. He’s put in new wood floors, relocated the bathrooms, and restored and opened up the central fireplace.

“I wanted to embrace the historical,” Chuong says. This includes the use of traditional-style Italian furniture, as well as antique artwork and Vietnamese instruments as decoration.

In the dining room, antique red-and-black hand-painted cabinets from China are functional as well as decorative. In MC’s entryway, a custom wine cabinet fills an entire wall.

MC also serves as an entry point to downtown Cary, which has gotten much busier in the four years since the completion of the Academy Street renovation. It will get busier still once the seven-acre, $50 million downtown park opens in 2022.

“The park is a great thing for the town of Cary. The infrastructure downtown was old, so now the town is taking a different approach. I’m glad to be a part of it,” Chuong says.

Comment on this story at food@indyweek.com.

Support independent local journalism. Join the INDY Press Club to help us keep fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle.