Back story on Kowloon

Ike DeLorenzo, who wrote the Cheap Eats review today about Kowloon, the pan-Asian landmark-restaurant in Saugus, sent this in:

Kowloon will celebrate its 60th anniversary this year. A long stretch for any eatery, and particularly for one this big (it now seats 1,200).

Founders Chun Sau Chin and his wife, Tow See, built and opened the restaurant (under another name) in Saugus in 1950 on the nascent Route 1 North strip we now know and love. They struck a deal with the developer to do the whole building on credit against future restaurant profits. It was immediately popular. Our grandparents may have gone on dates here.

Three generations later, the developer long paid off, Kowloon is run by Chun's grandsons Bob and Stan Wong. According to Bob Wong, his grandfather sent his father, William, age 6, to China to get a "formal Chinese education." In 1938, William, 15, abruptly returned to the United States, fleeing the invading Japanese army in China, and then, as the Japanese advanced, from his refuge in Kowloon (Hong Kong).

When Wong took over the restaurant in 1960, he renamed it Kowloon, and re-themed it with influences from past trips to the Territory -- now State -- of Hawaii, the famed Doral Beach Club in Miami, and the fantasies of Polynesia that had been a strong part of the national consciousness in the 1950s.

William's sons are unwilling to change the recipe and drink formulas that were popular in their grandfather's day. Good for them. As a result, we get to enjoy Polynesian drinks as strong and sweet as they were in the 1960s. Ditto the sometimes dated Chinese-American recipes. And the interior of the gigantic, multi-room restaurant is also classic (I don't want to say dated), and interesting for that very reason.

And, while history is preserved, additions are made. Sushi was added to the menu in 1988, Thai food was added in 2006. They fit seamlessly into the feel of the place, and add to the continuing legacy.