February 3, 2011- Chinese New Year:
Located in Bloomington, far enough south on Lyndale Avenue that it’s almost on the Minnesota River, this family owned restaurant has been around since 1958. It looks like it still has its original décor, which is exactly part of its charm. Where Psycho Suzie’s tries to look retro, this place truly is. It’s Kitschy, but genuinely so and I wish there were more places in the cities that were like it.
I probably wouldn’t have gone quite so far from my neck of the woods, but it was Chinese New Year and I always like to celebrate with some Chinese food, beer and preferably a kung fu movie and a game of Mah Jong. Having no Mah Jong partners for the evening, I decided to strike out for the benefit of my blog. I did some research on Chinese restaurants that also had bars. This seems to be a rarity, but Fong’s boasted of a “Lounge” and also other entertainment for the evening in celebration of the New Year. I was intrigued, so I was willing to go that far to check it out. This was a stretch for me, because I had never been there before, it was a long way from home, and I went alone and completely blind into the place. To begin, it was an adventure finding the place. I had no idea it was so far south. Driving along Lyndale, I was just about to give up and turn back, and then I saw it; the huge, landmark, neon sign.
The parking lot was full and my social anxiety meter was just about on tilt. This was my first time going into a completely strange place, completely alone. As I entered the establishment it was clear that many others were there celebrating the New Year. The place was teaming with people waiting around for a table and I was worried that I might not find a seat at the bar. Luckily, there was one seat open by a young red-haired girl who looked really out of place amongst the middle-aged (and older) crowd. I was relieved that she was someone I would be able to talk to. She was a waitress there, but not on duty. She was just waiting for her family to arrive, because they were having dinner there. That explained why a young lady like her would be hanging out at a place like that. She abruptly abandoned her seat to go have a smoke. I got the feeling that she was annoyed that I was attempting to speak to her. I’m not sure why. I think she might have thought I was hitting on her. I wasn’t…even if I was a lesbian; she wouldn’t have been my type. No, after her brothers arrived, I was considering hitting on them though, they were nice looking. But I digress…back to the subject.
This time I actually got a lot of pictures. I apologize for the quality. My I Phone takes blurry pix in low-light situations. I ordered a Tseng Tao and some pot-stickers. Also some Kung Pao Chicken (for later). The pot stickers were tasty, but nothing special. Pretty much tasted the same as every other pot sticker I’ve ever eaten. The red-head’s abandoned seat was soon occupied by a young African gentleman carrying a laptop bag. I don’t mean African-American, I mean African. He was from Nigeria, by way of Georgia Tech. He has a PhD in Chemical Physics (or something like that) and had just gotten a job with a global chemical company (won’t mention the company) as a chemical engineer. He said it was his job to figure out how to make membranes that filter dirty water. His name was something African that I can’t pronounce, but it sounded like Coyote, so I just referred to him as Dr. Coyote.
Poor Dr. Coyote. The bartenders were so busy by the time the good Dr. arrived, that he could not get their attention. Finally one of the bartenders asked me if I needed anything else, and I said, “Yes, for you to take this guy’s order. He’s been trying to get your attention for the last 15 minutes.” I could see the bartenders were extremely busy filling drink orders for the tables, but it would have been nice for them to at least tell the guy “I’ll come back for your order as soon as I finish this drink order.” Or at least have acknowledged him in some way. But, they just acted like he wasn’t there. It was rude. I can also understand, from a server’s perspective that, when it’s really busy like that, it might be rude of a customer to order food at the bar when they have a ton of drink orders to fill. However, I did ask if it was okay for me to eat at the bar before I ordered, and they told me it was fine. Dr. Coyote ordered some sort of beef dish, but only ate half and sent it back. He said it just didn’t taste right. He ordered another dish and proceeded to eat that as well. He made no comment about that, at least not before I left.
At one point, I had to use the ladies room and while finding my way there, I noticed there was quite an extensive bar on the other side of the bar where I was sitting. That must have been the “lounge” the website boasted of. I was a little upset that I hadn’t seen it before, or I would’ve sat there instead, but the patrons on that side looked a little more raucous than the crowd on my side and so I decided I was planted in the right place.
Around 7:00, the Fong family did the traditional Lion dance to ward off the evil spirits. Three generations followed behind the dancing gold lion, banging drums and cymbals. As the Lion was dancing by me, he stopped, looked right at me, fluttered his eyes and flapped his jaw. I hope that means he was bestowing me with “good luck”. I need some.
After my third Tseng Tao (I didn’t even have a buzz. Does anybody know if that beer is 3.2?) I paid my tab, wished Dr. Coyote luck at his new job and with developing tolerance to our Minnesota winters and headed out. As I was leaving, the Fong family, four generations this time, were milling around the hostess area. You could see that it was a really special time for them, like they just really enjoyed doing what they do, and doing it together. It was actually very touching. I wanted to take a picture, but thought it’d be rude of me to take a picture of their family moment.
I was going to save my Kung Pao chicken for lunch today, but I was curious to try it, so when I got home, I dug in. Yes, like Dr. Coyote said, there was just something not right about it. I think the chicken may have actually been turkey. I’m not even going to try to describe the rest. As far as Chinese food is concerned, I’ll stick to the Tea House, but Fong’s was a fun experience. I’m sort of proud of myself. This was a big stride towards knocking down some of my walls. You just never know who you’re going to meet, until you’re forced to speak to the person sitting next to you. I’ve got many more places and people to discover. Until my next blog…bottoms up!
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