Across two families, six generations and nine decades, the Shanghai Cafe has been serving tasty food for its loyal downtown Centralia patrons. That will soon end, as the Shanghai’s owners hang up their aprons for the last time at the end of the month.
Song and Young Ok have owned the Shanghai for 30 years of six-day weeks and 10-hour days. It’s time to retire, Young told me Thursday night, taking a moment to pause during a busy evening dinner rush.
“I have four grandkids. My mom is pushing 90. It’s the right time,” she said. “I spend time, more than my home, here.”
The Ok family has owned the Shanghai for three decades. The restaurant itself dates back to 1928, when it was founded by Chinese immigrant Kan Chinn, a Canton native. It moved to its current location in the 1930s after the original location, a few doors to the north, was damaged in a fire. The Shanghai is believed to be one of the oldest Chinese restaurants in the state. According to news reports I could track down, it beats the oldest Chinese restaurant in Seattle, Tai Tung, by seven years.
Chinn’s family owned the restaurant for three generations, then sold it to the Oks in 1990.
It has always been a family business, said Jae Ok, who was a young child when his Korean immigrant family bought the restaurant. He grew up working there, and still does when he comes down from Seattle on the weekends. His own 6-year-old daughter likes to help out at the restaurant, handing out menus.
“It’ll be sad to have them grow up without the restaurant,” he told me about his two young children. “It’s been such a big part of my life, but I’m happy for my parents. They’ve worked so hard.”
Jae, who works in the high-tech field, said that his parents have looked for a buyer with the idea of working alongside a new owner to help get him or her up to speed, but so far they haven’t found anyone to take over the business.
They have, however, had a number of offers to buy the colorful butterfly neon sign outside. They haven’t decided yet what they’ll do with that landmark bit of Centralia signage.
After retiring, Jae said his parents will move up to a house that he and his sister are building for them near Seattle. He’s happy that his parents will have a chance to attend their grandchildren’s school and sporting events.
“I thought it would be a neat opportunity for them to do the things they missed when we were growing up,” he said, since the restaurant took up 10-plus hours a day, every day except Sunday.
As news has filtered out about the closure, fans of the restaurant have been making sure they can get one last meal before it closes.
Ken and Tammy Huff brought their family out for dinner this week.
Although it has been a year or two since Ken has walked through the Shanghai’s doors, Young Ok remembered exactly what he likes to eat. (A 170 combo plate of barbecue pork, Mongolian beef and some sweet & sour items. “It melts in your mouth,” Huff says.)
Jae Ok tells me that his mother works hard to remember what her customers like to eat, as well as other details about their lives.
“My mom puts work and effort into remembering all of her customers: what they like, their family and kids, and what they do.”
Ok, who grew up working at the restaurant his parents bought when he was only five or six years old, said he can still feel the love when he comes into town and helps out at the family business on the weekends.
“I come in to work, and half the customers say, ‘The lady knows what we like.’”
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Brian Mittge can be reached at brianmittge@hotmail.com. He still vividly remembers his first meal at the Shanghai Cafe, right around the time the Oks took over. It’s still the best Mongolian beef he’s ever tasted.
