“I grew up in my father’s bustling and locally famous restaurant in Newton, MA. Whenever I wasn’t at school, the restaurant was a meeting place for my family. It gave us a chance to gather together and share a meal. This restaurant also allowed my father to bring his siblings into the country from Taiwan. Being so close to Boston, I had access to the cultural pockets of the big city. This, in combination with my father’s background, influenced my perception of Taiwanese culture and inspired my love for food. Being surrounded by first-generation Taiwanese immigrants also instilled my work ethic from a young age, setting me on my path as a renaissance man.
As a young adult, I decided to pause my education and pursue other passions. Through a friend’s father, I learned to cut hair in a salon and also worked in real estate. After working here for a few years, my passion for food was reignited. I decided to go to culinary school on the west coast where I worked in fine-dining and Michelin-starred restaurants. The experience was valuable, but I found it difficult to be hired in Asian cuisine restaurants. Although my father is Taiwanese, my mother is white, so I have more white-passing characteristics. After this experience and my desire to spend more time with my father, I moved back to Boston where I opened my own version of his restaurant from my childhood.
Opening my own restaurant gave me vital experience in starting a company and also provided me the opportunity to both preserve and reimagine my father’s recipes. While working on this restaurant with my father, I got married to my wife and had two children, one of whom has special needs. I quickly realized that the intensity of the food industry and the bustle of Boston wasn’t conducive for my new family. My brother, who completed his residency at Dartmouth Hitchcock, was moving back to Lebanon as an attending and encouraged me to make the move with him. Not only could we be close to the hospital for my son but also the rural geography of the Upper Valley provided a much-needed escape.
During this move to Boston and in the first year living in Lebanon, I became fascinated by “picking”, or the practice of buying, selling, and collecting unique, odd, and sometimes vintage treasures. In doing so, I formed relationships with other “pickers” in the Upper Valley, all deeply fascinated by the power of an object to tell a rich story. I knew I wanted to buy a building and start a business, and quickly discovered the best job I never knew existed.
Through my store Consign and Design in West Lebanon, I have become the curator of unnecessary, unique treasures and vintage must-haves. Consign and Design is not just a store. It is a vintage museum and art collaborative where customers can purchase the art and vendors can showcase their collections. This space has allowed me to not only share my passion for picking but also give the pickers of the upper valley a space to showcase and sell their work.
In addition to caring for my son’s needs, my family needed to escape the city. In Boston, creativity wasn’t affordable. Living in the Upper Valley has given me the opportunity to pursue my passion for picking and give other artists a space to share their work. It has also allowed me to create a strong foundation for my whole family to be connected with each other in one beautiful corner of the country.” –Chris Lin, West Lebanon, NH.
