Ex-Tattoo Artist Opens Restaurant: GEN Brings Guizhou's Sour and Spicy to a Jing'an Alley, Paired with Natural Wine
Guizhou native July went from tattoo artist to chef, chatting up the idea for GEN with neighbor Dali during lockdown. Using fermented sour-spicy flavors to create quirky East-meets-West dishes, paired with a full natural wine list, the tiny doorway hides a lively scene all night long.
An unassuming little door on Wuding Road only reveals what's inside once opening hours hit—like walking into someone's living room. Fewer than twenty seats, counting even the barstools, lighting kept low, wallpaper mixed with old ethnic minority artifacts and mismatched furniture piled together, looking like the owner just tossed things around yet somehow it all clicks. When the place fills up, staff pull out a wooden board and prop it on a bicycle parked on the street, conjuring up a makeshift roadside table. This low-tech trick has since become one of GEN's most memorable images.
GEN's (根, meaning "root") origin story starts during lockdown, an offhand idea between two neighbors living close by. July is from Guizhou, has worked in hotel management and as a tattoo artist, with no formal culinary training but a lifelong love of cooking—it took a roundabout journey before she confirmed the kitchen was truly where she wanted to be. Her partner Dali handles the entire wine list and doubles as DJ, mixing ethnic electronic, minority music, and world music into the playlist, giving the place its slightly underground vibe. In 2024, the two turned this idea into an actual restaurant.
Loud dish names, serious execution
The menu rotates every three months, and July calls her approach "Southwest ingredients, creative technique"—dish names come straight up, with a bit of a challenge baked in. The most provocative one is called Bullshit King (¥108): Dai-style beef tartare that's undergone lactic fermentation, mixed with pork skin for texture, seasoned with spice and chili, served with tempura mulberry leaf as a scoop and thinly sliced raw garlic—it hits you hard and direct. Among the cold dishes, Antler Fluffy (¥58) pairs Tibetan reindeer moss with fresh yam slices—the moss is blanched to remove its woody edge, then tossed in a sour-spicy sauce of vinegar, sesame oil, and chili, with the yam shaved into thick strands, chewy and cooling at once. My Octopus Teacher (¥98) slices octopus leg into a carpaccio resembling thin raw beef, paired with black olives for salinity and drizzled with a smoked chili sauce made from litsea cubeba, carrying a hint of woodsmoke and citrus.
One Ball After Another (¥28 for three) is house-made lightly fermented tofu balls, fried and hollowed out, then filled with fermented tofu paste and edamame, finished with a sauce made from toon shoots—a seasonal ingredient that, handled well, delivers a complex aroma—topped off with a dusting of Parmesan. The more substantial Lord of Potato (¥128) is a purple sweet potato cake with black truffle, piled high with hand-picked hairy crab meat and salmon roe, dusted with Guizhou Zunyi chili powder, inspired by baked potatoes, with a texture more layered than you'd expect. Frog on Slate (¥78) is roughly mashed fava beans mixed with pan-fried bacon, topped with crispy glutinous rice and shiso seeds, with a light dusting of fine sugar—the sweet-salty combo is unexpectedly delightful. "Gold Weighs 300 Grams" (¥98) is pork neck with house-made mint sauce, the meat chewy yet rich, paired with tempura sichuan pepper leaf, bringing out peppery and citrus notes on the finish. The closer is July's homestyle comfort dish, What A Wow Noodles (¥68)—Guizhou duck egg noodles, somewhere between egg noodles and buckwheat noodles, steeped in a tomato-sour soup made from hong-bai suan, an essential fermented liquid in Guizhou cuisine—the broth is sharply sour with notes of litsea cubeba and makrut lime leaf, topped with a large slab of fried sea bass fillet.
Dali's Natural Wine List
GEN skipped the wine or cocktail route entirely, betting the whole drinks list on sake—Dali says this is what gives the place its identity, and the selection direction deliberately avoids the mainstream. The bar carries well-known names like Dassai, but the focus is on organic, naturally fermented options—some lean toward saison, like naturally fermented farmhouse ale, high in acidity, good as an aperitif or after dinner; others carry floral or fruity notes. Single glasses run ¥68 to ¥128, all personally selected by Dali, who's happy to give recommendations on the spot, plus a six-pour tasting flight for ¥188. The bottles I tried varied quite a bit: one sweet with a distinct lychee note and a clean finish; one with striking acidity, a surprisingly good natural wine; one close to huangjiu but with a drier finish; and my favorite, a peach-forward pour, bright and juicy with a heavier body.
Weekends get busy at GEN, but most guests are regulars coming back rather than the check-in-and-queue crowd chasing internet fame. It feels more like July and Dali laying out everything they love—fermented sour-spicy flavors, carefully chosen natural wines—all at once, for anyone willing to sit down and take it in. Nomfluence readers can get a complimentary 45ml pour of the daily recommended wine, one per person. Full operating hours and reservation details weren't provided in this piece—best to confirm before heading over.
