The Dragon Wall Chinese Buffet is an Evanston tradition. From its beginning in 1997 diners grew to appreciate the steady quality and the wide variety of dishes on the menu. From General Tsao’s Chicken to its delicate Egg Rolls, the buffet is always hot and fresh.
In 2000, the original owners sold the Dragon Wall to Don and Lin Li. They immigrated from Fuzhou, China to live in our community and continue the family tradition that is the Dragon Wall.
Fuzhou is a city of over seven million people in the Fujian province of the People’s Republic of China. It is almost a thousand miles south of Beijing, situated on the north bank of the Min River where it flows into the Taiwan Strait. From Fuzhou, it is only a short flight, 158 miles, to Taiwan.
Fuzhou is where the tradition of the Dragon Wall begins. Go into any Chinese buffet in America and ask the owners about their city of birth. Chances are your inquiries will lead back to the same place. Don tells me that Fuzhou restaurateurs have established 80% of the Chinese buffets in the U.S.A.
It’s not that Fuzhou is particularly known for the culinary arts. It is simply that some of its first emigres were successful in the buffet business and word filtered back home. Now, Fuzhou citizens who are seeking to make a fresh start in America have a well-established business model that affords them a great opportunity to raise their families in what they call mei guo (the Beautiful Country).
When I ponder the courage and grit that it would take to leave behind everything that you have ever known and travel 7,000 miles to make a new life, I am humbled. It hearkens back to the story of my German ancestors—and the ancestors of millions of Americans—who came from places as diverse as Prussia, Ireland, Mexico and Somalia to make this land their home.
The Lis have become an integral part of our Evanston community for more than two decades. They have fed us on special occasions and for business luncheons. They have raised their kids with ours, shopped in Evanston stores and helped us build our community in countless ways.
All this has been done in their typically quiet and unassuming way. If you haven’t gone out of your way to meet them, you might never have known their names. Don and Lin think nothing of working ten hours a day, seven days a week.
It is precisely this quiet industriousness that motivates me to tell their story. When the great shut-down of 2020 hit, the restaurant business was hit hardest of all. Last Wednesday, September 1, Governor Gordon issued the 11th continuation of Statewide Public Health Order #1. This order, covering bars, restaurants, theaters, gymnasiums, child-care and schools has now restricted businesses like the Dragon Wall for six straight months.
But of all the restaurants restricted, the most severely impacted are self-serve buffets. Every other business model has been allowed to return to some semblance of order. But Public Health Order #1 (2.j) decrees that “No self-serve food service or buffet options shall be available…” For now, and for the foreseeable future, self-serve restaurants are still unable to be self-serve restaurants.
What does such an order do to a family whose only means of support is the self-serve restaurant business that they have lovingly maintained for two decades? With this question in mind, I went to the Dragon Wall and introduced myself.
I was pleasantly surprised to find that they were open for business. This was a great improvement. Under the first order and three continuations, they were forced to close their doors completely. While major chains like McDonald’s were authorized to keep operating as “essential businesses” smaller “mom and pop” establishments like Dragon Wall were shut out of the economy.
Together with countless small restaurants across the country, their business provided no income for their family for two entire months. Had it not been for relief made available through the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, their household could have fallen into bankruptcy.
During these months, they were not idle. Foreseeing that strictures on self-serve restaurants would continue long after those with a service model were reopened, they started making plans. The Dragon Wall purchased Plexiglas dividers to separate diners from the food bar and from the cashier. They spaced their tables to accommodate social distancing and bought cases of Styrofoam boxes.
Equipped with these provisions, they were ready when the modifications of the May 15th Public Health Order went into effect. Their new business model is similar to the Panda Express chain. For a set price, customers can receive a bed of fried rice or lo mein noodles. Then, they can select two different entrees and an appetizer. For an additional dollar, they can add soup and a drink.
Upon reopening, they were serving only half the customers that they had serviced before the shutdown, but at least they were able to put food on the table. Sadly, they were forced to lay off their employee. This, too, was the common lot of businesses far and wide. But now that they have been opened for two and a half months, their customer base is slowly rising.
Despite the neon sign welcoming diners, there are still a substantial number of people who are unaware that many buffets have retooled their business model to enable reopening. But, open they are, and as terrific as ever.
While those making public health decisions continue to receive full salary and benefits, families like the Lis are affected in a far more immediate way. Through ingenuity and grit they have not only found a way to keep body and soul together, but also to continue to serve the Evanston community as restaurateurs and neighbors.
No doubt, there are many thousands of family-owned businesses throughout the state and the nation that share a similar story. I wanted to write about the Li family to help us remember them all. Calls to lift unnecessary restrictions at the earliest moment feasible are not about restoring some faceless capitalistic economy. They are about people.
The word “economy” comes from the Greek word for managing a household. It is about families like the Li’s. It is about our neighbors, friends, school mates and fellow-immigrants. To care about their needs and challenges is a part of being human.
I asked Don if there was anything special that he wanted the community to know. He was eager to tell me. With no worries at all for the future, he said, “No matter what happens next, we appreciate that the community has helped us to raise our kids in a peaceful life.”
The appreciation is mutual. Who knew that eating great Chinese food was anything more than a valued dining experience? Supporting a good family and community partner simply came in the bargain. That is how the economy is supposed to work.
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