The fancy mall in the Time Warner Center known as the Shops at Columbus Circle has a lot to answer for. Its opening, in 2003, may have marked Manhattan’s capitulation to a retail landscape ruled by chains rather than independent, homegrown businesses. …

So those of us who follow David Chang’s mind along its switchbacks and cul-de-sacs have to wonder if he was being subversive when he decided to install Bang Bar, which is essentially a shawarma stand, on the mall’s third floor.