Founder's daughter takes over as managing partner at Plum restaurant

Zen Restaurant and Sushi Bar in Plum has undergone an ownership change, although the faces around the restaurant may not change as far as the regulars are concerned.

Victoria Weng, 24-year-old daughter of previous owner Mei Liu, is now one of the youngest managing partners of a restaurant in the Pittsburgh area.

Liu retired in the summer to travel the world after owning the business since its 2016 opening. She made the decision to retire the previous spring, when the restaurant was passed on to Weng.

In October, the restaurant was sold completely before Weng bought back in for 25%, and the ownership group decided to make her the managing partner.

“I don’t know about the rest of my life,” Weng said about how how long she views herself being in the restaurant business. “But for the next 10 years, definitely.”

She entered the restaurant business at age 15, when she started working for her mother’s previous restaurant. It wasn’t her plan to stay in the business, though. After graduating from high school, she completed nursing school.

“I started working as a nurse and then I realized that wasn’t for me either,” she said. “So I made the decision to come back into the restaurant. It’s what I like to do, making connections with the regulars.”

Her parents came to the United States, from Taipei City, Taiwan when they were in their 20s to open a restaurant, after her father’s family had done the same with a restaurant in New Kensington.

Weng and her brother, Jason, who previously worked at the Zen’s, both were born in the United States.

“Victoria is going to be OK,” her mother said. “And if she needs help, then we still support her in everything she likes to do.”

Weng has made several changes to the restaurant since taking over, even though the plan is to keep the brand similar to what has been established. New products — including boba tea, poke bowls and a dessert menu and — have been added or are in the process of being added.

Zen also is getting new menus and will start selling merchandise such as T-shirts soon.