Nestled below street-level in Hanover’s downtown and just a short walk from Dartmouth’s campus, is the bustling Han Fusion. Yet, while students and locals alike settle into its warm, steady atmosphere of circular tables and booths next to windows, few see the person behind the scenes that has kept the restaurant running for nearly seven years.
On any given night, owner Tom Liang might be at the front of the house, warmly greeting customers as they come through the door. Or, he might be in the kitchen, his hands moving with the practiced ease of someone who has spent a lifetime in the culinary world. He could even be out on the road, delivering orders himself. The role he plays shifts from hour to hour, based on the restaurant’s needs.
“I’m kind of like a substitute,” Liang explained. “Whenever there’s a spot that’s missing, I have to fill in.”
This fluidity has defined his entire career.
“I immigrated here [to the United States] when I was 15,” Liang explained. A few years later, he attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he studied hotel and restaurant management. Still, most of what he knows came from his working experience.
“I’ve been working in a Chinese restaurant since I was 18,” he explained. “When I was a student, I started working part-time. I know every position in the restaurant.”
His rise through the industry came steadily.
“When I was 24, I started to help owners manage restaurants,” he said. “I've [worked at] many different restaurants throughout Massachusetts, Vermont, Connecticut and New Hampshire.”
Over the years, he immersed himself in a wide range of establishments, managing a “combination of Chinese, Japanese, hibachi and fusion” restaurants.
Progressing through these varied roles helped him develop a mindset rooted in adaptability. Rather than anchoring himself to a single cuisine or identity, Liang began to think in terms of responsiveness and flexibility, a perspective that eventually found a home in Han Fusion.
“One of my [now-business] partners found that this place was vacant,” Liang recalled. “He said, ‘Oh, it’s a great place. It’s near Dartmouth College.’”
Five months after Liang opened Han Fusion, though, COVID-19 arrived — and with it, exceptional circumstances that were, by any measure, a difficult stretch.
“I had to cut back a lot of labor,” Liang said. “Luckily, we had grants [from] the government [to] help small business owners. They provide[d help through the] Paycheck Protection Program, [which is] what helped us.”
Even so, keeping the restaurant afloat required constant adjustment. From the beginning, Liang had believed in the power of variety.
“From my experience in the past, I knew that a restaurant [that] can offer [a broader range of options] would become more popular,” he explained. “When we started, we offer[ed] sushi and Japanese food, and even now, we offer different kinds [of Asian cuisine]. We have Thai dishes [and] we have authentic [Chinese] dishes.” The culmination of these ideas is reflected in the restaurant’s name: Han Fusion.
Navigating Hanover provided its own unique set of challenges.
“I…[had] to shift the way of doing things in this restaurant to adjust to fit the community and the market in this area,” he said.
Catering, for instance, turned out to be far more central to the business than Liang had anticipated.
“At…the restaurant that I used to manage, we didn’t have that much cater[ing],” he explained. But in Hanover, with “a big hospital nearby” and Dartmouth students, demand quickly grew.
“Students have a lot of demands for cater[ing] …whenever they have meetings [and…] events,” he said.
Other adjustments were more subtle.
“We used to make cocktails when they were ordered. But, within this area [of Hanover], you have to pre-mix them, because you don’t have time to [make them on the spot],” he described. “When [customers] show up, they show up in groups.”
Similarly, Han Fusion’s menu evolved with the ebb and flow of what customers wanted.
“At first, I only had one page to try to see how the market is like in this area," he said. In the beginning, he admitted, a lot of the menu items “didn’t go very well.”
But he kept watching, and kept adjusting. Dishes that began as specials started to find their footing, and the ones that resonated were added to the regular menu. More were added, and then more still.
“At this point, I don't think we can add any more, because there are too many items,” Liang said, laughing.
One of the most meaningful discoveries came from Hanover’s international student population.
“There are quite a bit of Asian students, like Chinese, Korean and Japanese [students],” Liang said. “They all like authentic dishes.”
Leaning into these preferences, he tailored the restaurant’s offerings to better reflect traditional regional dishes. “Han Fusion is providing Chinese food for people who can't get it anywhere else,” he said.
Food, however, is only part of what keeps a steady wave of returning customers.
“Being able to connect to customers is more important than what you actually offer them,” Liang explained.
Over time, Liang has come to know many of the individuals who pass through his doors, from Dartmouth’s students to Hanover locals.
“Most of them treat me like a friend instead of an owner,” he explained. “Make your customer feel like they’re your friend. Whenever they’re here, they feel like they’re at home.”
To create such an atmosphere, Liang shoulders a type of ever-constant vigilance. As manager, when staffing gaps appear without warning, he fills in immediately.
“I think that’s the difficult part [of my job],” he said. “It was worse before, because we had sushi, too. So, if there was a cook and a sous chef missing, …I can’t be [in] both places [at once].”
After more than thirty years in this industry, Liang has learned to navigate these conditions of uncertainty, understanding that nothing about the work — including his role — remains static. The variety makes the job all the more fulfilling.
“I’m proud that I can provide this type of restaurant and a different type of food, especially authentic dishes, to this community,” Liang said.
The next time you descend down the familiar steps to Han Fusion and settle into its warm atmosphere, take a moment to look past the seamless ease of it all, and recognize that the local favorite that sits before you today was carefully fashioned from decades of learning and adjustment.
