New Garden Chinese restaurant, one of Phoenix's oldest restaurants, is closing at the end of October. However, the owners hope to find someone to continue the restaurant's 84-year legacy.
Former owner Bill Kwan, who spoke to The Arizona Republic on Oct. 14, said the current owners are in their late 60s and early 70s and are selling the restaurant not because business is slow, but because of medical issues and the toll this work is taking on their aging bodies.
Mike Snitz of Realty One Group said he's looking to find new owners to "keep the tradition alive" with the restaurant at Central Avenue and Hadley Street.
"This is a piece of Phoenix history," he said. "Everybody who was anybody came through this restaurant in the early days: Mary Rose Wilcox,
Jerry Colangelo (former owner of the Phoenix Suns) and Charlie Keating, who built the Phoenician."
Snitz said they want to update a few things once the restaurant closes and were actively looking for a new owner.
"It takes an owner-operator who's sophisticated in business, that can have the staff and wants a 'dive Chinese restaurant,'" he said.
According to The Republic, this is Phoenix's last chop suey house, the "last remnant of the Chinese immigrants who settled in the warehouse district south of downtown."
The restaurant was opened in 1942 by Kam Yee Tse, who was known to many as Mary. After her husband died in 1970, one of her relatives, Wing Quong Ong, began cooking. In 1985, Bill Kwan and his father, Yancey, who were also related to Tse, bought the restaurant. It changed hands once more when it was sold in 2015 to current owners Run Qun Feng, her husband Gui Chang Zhang and her brother-in-law Tom Tang.
The Americanized Chinese recipes served at the restaurant have remained the same since the 1940s.
"I would see a customer coming and knew them well enough to start preparing their order," Kwan said.
In 2024, Feng told The Republic she would run the restaurant until her body told her she needed to rest. The time has come.
Details: 823 S. Central Ave., Phoenix. 602-254-9110, newgardencafe.com.
Reach the restaurant critic at BAnooshahr@azcentral.com. Follow @baharcreative on Instagram.
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: One of Phoenix's oldest Chinese restaurants is closing after 84 years
