Nearly 50-year-old restaurant temporarily closed, 68-year-old owner looking for someone to pass on the profession

CHINA - After doing business for nearly 50 years, when his health was failing, Mr. Phuong in Zhejiang decided to temporarily close the restaurant, find someone to take over and pass on all his cooking secrets.

In early November, Lao Phuong restaurant on Phuc Hung Street, Hang Chau (Zhejiang, China) officially announced the temporary closure of its operations. Since the first location opened on Dong Pha Street, this brand has had a history of 49 years.

In the WeChat friends list of “Old Fang” - the owner of Phuong Xuan Lam restaurant - there are nearly 900 regular customers, in fact the number exceeds 3,000 people. Many people come to the restaurant just to enjoy the unique flavor of fresh fish dishes from the Tien Duong River.

Mr. Phuong is looking for a successor. Photo: QQ

Since the “temporarily closed – looking for a successor” sign was posted, the owner of the shop has received many messages every day asking about his business. He always replies with the same sentence: “Temporarily closed, looking for a successor.”

49 years of building a brand from a small shop

On the afternoon of November 13, around 1 p.m., the restaurant door was ajar. Mr. Phuong Xuan Lam and his wife had just seen off a group of guests who came to discuss the takeover.

Since his daughter posted the notice “looking for a successor” on social media, 3 to 4 groups of customers have come to negotiate, expressing their desire to take over the restaurant.

The 68-year-old man could not hide his emotions when talking about this. He said that his health has not been good recently. In February this year, he suffered a mild cerebral infarction, and during a recent health check, he also discovered a heart problem. “I feel like my brain is lacking oxygen and I feel sleepy easily,” he said.

At the age of 19, Phuong Xuan Lam opened a small restaurant named Lao Phuong right at his house at No. 7 Long Tuong Alley, Dong Pha Street (near the current Dong Pha Theater). Thanks to its location next to the largest seafood wholesale market in Hangzhou at that time - Long Tuong Fish Market - he decided to specialize in selling delicious dishes, fresh fish from the Tien Duong River. "The source of goods was close and fresh. Hangzhou people loved to eat fish, so it sold very well," he recalled.

He then opened two more establishments but they did not make a splash. 22 years ago, he opened Lao Phuong in a resettlement house on Phuc Hung Street. From here, the name of Lao Phuong restaurant was affirmed, becoming a familiar destination for gourmets. At its peak, he had up to seven restaurants in the city.

“When I was young, work was very hard. For more than ten years, I hardly slept in bed. I closed the door at 12am, took a shower, put some chairs together and slept. At 4am, I had to get up to light the stove and welcome guests for breakfast,” he said.

Mr. Phuong has many years of experience in the profession. Photo: QQ

As he got older and his health declined, he gradually closed down the establishments, keeping only the restaurant on Phuc Hung Street - which he believed retained the pure "Lao Phuong flavor", carrying the true culinary spirit of the Tien Duong River.

Looking for a successor to keep the traditional flavor

Having worked in the profession for over 40 years, Mr. Phuong has the ability to distinguish ingredients very well.

His sources of goods span many regions. He has built a stable supply chain for more than 40 years. “Now fishermen and crab farmers have passed on their skills to their children.”

The prices at the restaurant have also remained affordable for many years. A chicken sells for 68 yuan (more than 250,000 VND), the same price for many years.

A familiar meal for diners includes: a chicken, two fresh fish dishes and a plate of country vegetables - about 200 yuan (more than 740 thousand VND), enough for 3-4 people.

Since November 2, the restaurant has stopped cooking to consume the remaining food. His family advised him to stop completely because they were worried about his health.

He hopes his successor can preserve the traditional flavor: “There are only 8 more years until we can register the title of 'long-standing brand'. I don't want to let it be lost.”

In his 40 years in the profession, he has trained more than 40 students, of whom more than 10 are still head chefs at many restaurants familiar to Hangzhou people. “The chef at my current restaurant is also a ‘grandchild’ in the student system,” he said.

In the announcement of “looking for a successor”, he clearly wrote: all the recipes and operating procedures will be handed over in full. He will directly teach all the secrets so that regular customers can still find the “old taste”.

That means even if Mr. Phuong retires, the “Lao Phuong flavor” can still continue to exist, information from QQ.

The famous restaurant with the owner "raps" to calculate the bill and announces that it is about to close, leaving many diners surprised and regretful.

Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/quan-an-gan-50-nam-tam-dong-cua-chu-68-tuoi-tim-nguoi-de-truyen-nghe-2463433.html