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An Asian restaurant in St. John’s that’s been in business since the 1980s is closing its doors for the last time this month.
The final day for Loong Wah Restaurant on Lemarchant Road is set for Sunday, May 14, marking the end of over 30 years of food service.
“Our lease is up,” said owner Zoe Wu in an interview with CBC Radio’s Weekend AM. She took over the restaurant in 2018 from the previous owners who had been running the business since the 1980s, though Wu said the space had been a restaurant for a long time before then as well.
“It took us a while to make this decision,” Wu said. Though the business is going well and customers are happy, it was time for a change after the last few years of the pandemic.
“The market hasn’t been stable to run a business, especially restaurants, just the food cost is so high,” Wu said.
When it comes to Asian food, Wu said customers expect the price to be lower. However, the rising cost of ingredients, plus the amount of prep time required to prepare the dishes, make it challenging to turn a profit.
As well, Wu said the dining habits of people have changed in recent years. She said any return to the industry would have to require some outside-the-box thinking.
“It’s kind of sad to step out, but really we do need to think about how we need to move forward, either staying in the restaurant setting or moving into a central kitchen like a ghost kitchen.”
A “ghost kitchen” is a restaurant that doesn’t have a storefront, and instead solely focuses on delivery through third-party apps like SkipTheDishes or DoorDash.
“We haven’t decided yet,” said Wu. “We love this industry.”
Another idea Wu has is to sell ingredients directly to customers. One of Loong Wah’s most popular meals is hot pot, a fondue-like experience where customers dip thin slices of meat, vegetables and other delicacies into a boiling soup broth.
“A lot of people are asking about our sauce,” Wu said. She’s considering selling Loong Wah’s homemade chili sauce and hot pot base.
“Even though there’s no facility for you to come in to enjoy our food, we can do something for you to bring it home, to make your own food.”
For now, while Wu is considering options for the future, she has lots of good memories from years of running the business. While the previous owners served North American Chinese food, Wu said she tried to diversify the menu with more authentic Asian dishes. Her emphasis has been on Taiwanese food as that’s where she’s originally from.
“It’s not just Taiwan food, but also food from China, Korea and Japan, we tried a little bit of everything — a fusion.” Some of Loong Wah’s fusion dishes included their salted cod fried rice and Newfoundland-themed fried rice which included jiggs dinner ingredients.
Aside from the success of the hot pot, Wu is also proud of her summertime Taiwanese night market snack food, which also included different kinds of drinks, shaved ice and desserts.
For many of Wu’s customers, it was their first time trying these dishes.
“From the immigrant point of view, it’s always nice and very proud to introduce something that belongs to you to a new market,” said Wu, though she admits that wasn’t always easy. “You work really, really hard and introduce something new to the community and try to create a buzz and share with certain groups of people. That’s the most difficult.”
But for her last week in business, Wu is just focused on serving her customers one last great meal.
“We got lots of hugs,” Wu said, referring to how her regular customers responded to the news of the closure. “A lot of positive wishes and hoping for us to be back. And also congratulations to our new chapter and everything. All love, all positive. We appreciate everything, the support we’re getting from the community.”
Many customers have been leaving their condolences on a wall in the restaurant and many say they’re saddened by the news. Mei Mei, a frequent diner at Loong Wah, said she’s going to miss the food.
“There are not a lot of Taiwanese restaurants around,” Mei said. “This is the only one where we can try our hometown food.”
Read more from CBC Newfoundland and Labrador
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