There's a moment Corrie Wang describes from early in her relationship with Shuai that says a lot about who she is.
They were working together at Chez Sardine in the West Village of New York. He was chef de cuisine; she was waiting tables and writing a novel every morning. After a good service one night, they found themselves slapping hands over the pass. Instead of pulling away, she held on…because Corrie has always had good instincts.
Two years later, they were married in Charleston, South Carolina, and the day after their wedding, they opened a food truck.
That food truck, Short Grain, earned them a James Beard nod. A decade later, they run two restaurants in North Charleston's Park Circle neighborhood: Jackrabbit Filly, which serves heritage-driven New Chinese American cuisine inspired by Shuai's mom and grandmother's recipes, and King BBQ, their Chinatown-style barbecue spot built on southern smoke.
This International Women's Day, we're celebrating Corrie: the novelist-turned-restaurateur who co-built something real, and who keeps the whole shebang running with a whole lotta heart.
She Came to Food Through Words (and the Other Way Around)
Corrie grew up in Buffalo, New York, as a kid with a big imagination who loved food. She went to college for studio art and English, started writing a novel every morning over coffee, and took restaurant jobs in the evening to make it work.
When she moved to New York, she kept waitressing to support the writing. She worked at a literary agency for a while, but missed the money and, honestly, the people. "It's a great profession," she said of restaurant work. "You're surrounded by the very best people. And, you get to eat and drink really exciting foods!"
She eventually landed at Chez Sardine in the West Village, where she met Shuai and everything became beautifully complicated. The writing career didn't pause for the restaurants, and the restaurants didn't pause for the writing.
Corrie published two novels through Little, Brown during the same years they were opening the food truck, and then Jackrabbit Filly (which tells you everything you need to know about her capacity for doing hard things with grace).
Along the way, she became a James Beard Foundation WEL program alum (a 10-week leadership program for women in the food industry, run in partnership with Cornell University), an Independent Restaurant Coalition board member, and, together with Shuai, a 2024 StarChefs Charleston-Savannah Rising Stars Restaurateur.
On paper, those credentials sit neatly in a line. In practice, they represent years of showing up fully for two enormous things at once, while building a life in a new city.
Eventually, she gave herself permission to put the book down. Not forever (she's clear about that), but the restaurants needed her, she knew she needed to create space to rest and recharge with her dogs and Shuai, and let’s be real…she’s living the story right now.
The Person Who Keeps the Lights On
In any partnership, someone has to be the one who knows what's in the checking account on a Tuesday. For the Wangs, that's Corrie. The financials, the copy, the special event programming (the Valentine's week events, the lemon drop book swaps, the community pop-ups) all run through her. And she carries it all with a steadiness that makes it look easier than it is.
Shuai describes her as the person who keeps them grounded. "She knows every little single detail about the restaurants," he said. "She's such a good planner. If I have too crazy an idea, she just keeps us focused."
What is equally true is that she's also the one behind the most fun, memorable ideas at the restaurants, and the one who pushes toward community when the instinct everywhere else is to pull back.
When Shuai wanted to start a free food program for people who had lost SNAP benefits, Corrie was right there with him, figuring out how to make it work without taking them out of business.
That balance, generosity and groundedness in the same breath, is what makes them such a good team. It's the texture of what they've built - not a perfect system, but a real one, where two people with different strengths show up for the same thing every day.
What Food Means in Her Family
Corrie grew up feeling fed and loved, even when things were tight. Visiting friends with bigger houses and nicer stuff never really registered, because home felt full. That's not a small thing to carry into a career in hospitality.
The same warmth shows up when she talks about Shuai's grandmother. The woman could barely get from one room to the next, but when Corrie came to visit, she got on her scooter and cooked chicken wings and pasta, Shuai's favorites, just because he was there. "Just the best people," Corrie said. "So lovely."
That feeling is what ends up in the restaurants. Nothing fancy required. Just the sense that someone who cares about you made this, and they're not letting you leave hungry.
Not a restaurant that's trying to impress you. A home that's happy you showed up.
Two Spice Blends. One Family Recipe. One Obsession.
When we sat down with Corrie and Shuai to talk about collaborating with Spicewalla, it felt less like a business conversation and more like catching up with old friends.
Here’s a little about the spice blend magic we’ve created together:
Chef Shuai Wang's Chilli Crunch Dry Mix is Shuai’s grandmother's chilli oil recipe, minus the oil. The freshest version is always the one you make at home.
Built around both red and green Sichuan peppercorns, crushed chillis, toasted sesame, fennel, and a touch of sugar, it's the one pint you will always find in the Wang’s fridge. One tin plus 1.5 cups of hot neutral oil and you've got a pint of fresh chilli crisp.
Chef Shuai Wang's Sichuan Hot Chicken Spice came out of Shuai's love for hot pot and the cumin lamb skewers he ate growing up in Beijing. It's the blend they use at Jackrabbit Filly: dip the chicken in chilli oil, dredge it in this, done. The Sichuan peppercorns give it that electric tingly heat; the cinnamon and star anise give it depth that makes it more interesting than any hot chicken seasoning has a right to be. It's also vegan, which still kind of delights us.
On International Women's Day
There's a line Corrie said during our conversation that we keep coming back to. She was talking about what she looks forward to, about reclaiming the carefree version of herself that existed before she became responsible for two restaurants and everyone in them. "I look forward to getting back to that person more and more," she said.
And you know what? We see her. The fun one is still very much there, and it's felt every day by the communities she shows up for, and by anyone lucky enough to pull up a chair at one of their restaurants.
Happy International Women's Day to Corrie Wang, and to every woman pouring her whole heart into building something good for their community!
