Yes. You Can Go Home Again.

25 Sunday Oct 2015

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures

Tags

"A Sad Apology", "Home Is Only Two Blocks Away", "Thomas Wolfe Was Wrong", Edsel Ford Fung, Sam Wo's Chinese Restaurant, Thomas Wolfe, Thommie Award, World's Rudest Waiter, You Can't Go Home Again

SamWo2

Careful readers of MillersTime.net, assuming there are one or two, may remember three earlier posts (Thomas Wolfe Was Wrong, Home Is Only Two Blocks Away, and A Sad Apology) about our long time favorite Chinese ‘dive’ (Sam Wo’s) in San Francisco, it’s closing, and the hope that it would reopen or would resurrect itself in some way.

Also, one or two of you might remember that MillersTime ‘won’ the ‘prestigious’ Thommie Award for “outstanding literary work” on my blog” with articles on the topic of whether one could in fact go home again.

Well, I’m delighted to tell you that you can go home again (tho it might be a few blocks away from your previous home). Sam Wo’s has reopened in San Francisco under the same Ho family ownership and chef. Alas, its “world’s rudest waiter” (Edsel Ford Fung) has long since passed away, tho they are still looking for some night time help…

It’s new address is 713 Clay Street (a three minute walk or a 52 second drive from the former location at 813 Washington St.).

SamWo5 While it’s actually been open since Oct. 2 for a preview and a ‘soft’ opening, it had a formal, ribbon cutting re-opening Wednesday, Oct. 21. For all the details about its opening, its new location, its hours, and other such details, see this article:

Sam Wo Restaurant Reopens Among Throngs Of Well-Wishers, Dignitaries

There is also a second article you might want to see if you want more details about the new/old Sam Wo’s:

13 Things to Know About the New Sam Wo

Since I unfortunately do not have any immediate plans to be in SF (tho I would consider a quick round trip flight there if the price was right), I would appreciate any on the spot reports from those of you who are lucky/smart enough to be in the neighborhood or close enough to check it out, (Hint: Sal, G., Tom P., Leslie K., Lance B., Land/Ping W., Larry M., Robin R., etc.)

PS – Maybe there’s hope. When I just told Ellen about this post, she said, “It’s time to go back to San Francisco.”

Now that’s the right attitude for a spouse to have.

Anyone want to join us at the new/old Sam Wo’s?

MillersTime Wins an Award

25 Wednesday Mar 2015

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

"A Sad Apology", "Thomas Wolfe Was Wrong", "You Can Go Home Again...Almost", Millerstime, Sam Wo's Chinese Restaurant, Thommie Award, You Can't Go Home Again

For real.

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Normally I wouldn’t brag, but my wife Ellen insists I post the following:

While looking at my email in the middle of the night recently (I know, bad form), I saw this: Congrats! You’ve won a Thommie Award for outstanding work on your blog “MillersTime”. I thought it was spam and almost deleted it.

But I took a chance and opened the email. Don’t we all like winning awards?

I saw that a group named Thomas Wolfe Was Wrong was looking for writers who have commented on whether or not you can go home again (the adage taken from Wolfe’s 1940 novel You Can’t Go Home Again).

In choosing MillersTime as “our first recipient of the prestigious Thommie Award” — for excellence in literary interpretation — they cited me for “rescinding (my) initial comment regarding Thomas Wolfe’s faultiness.” They cited my post A Sad Apology and quoted from what I had written:

In October of last year, I wrote, “Thomas Wolfe was wrong. You can go home again – almost.”… . Sam Wo’s is closing. You can read about the details as written in the SF Chronicle, but basically, the place is so far from being acceptable to the Health Department, that it would take a mammoth rebuilding to keep it open… … And so my apologies to the also deceased Thomas Wolfe. After going ‘home’ to Sam Wo’s for the last 50 years, that is now no longer possible.

Basically, after returning to my favorite San Francisco Chinese Restaurant, Sam Wo’s, I wrote a review (You Can Go Home Again…Almost), saying it was still a good restaurant, and, therefore, Thomas Wolfe was wrong in his famous adage.

Not long after that post, I was ‘forced’ to write another one acknowledging the closing of Sam Wo’s. I think it was that post (A Sad Apology) that accounted for my winning of the Thommie Award.

I sincerely want to thank the Thomas Wolfe Was Wrong folks for this ‘prestigious’ Thommie Award.

The End of Sam Wo’s?

05 Thursday Sep 2013

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Julie Ho, Sam Wo's Chinese Restaurant

Pix by Anita Rechler

I regret to inform MillersTime readers that there will be no reopening of Sam Wo’s at 813 Washington St. in SF’s Chinatown.

Closed for health and building code violations in April 2012, negotiations have broken down between the owners of the building and the owners of Sam Wo’s over the cost ($300,000) to satisfy the necessary repairs. As a result, Julie Ho announced on her Facebook page that the 100+ year’s of Sam Wo’s rental of 813 Washington St. has come to an end. The restaurant will not reopen at that site.

It is possible, however, that the restaurant could reopen at a different location in SF’s Chinatown, tho that is not at all certain. Julie Ho is apparently searching for a new location in the same neighborhood.

But for those of you, us, who have known this narrow, this three story ‘hole in the wall’ (?) where ‘diners’ entered through the kitchen and climbed to the second or third floor for inexpensive and satisfying Chinese food, it’s all over. No more food delivered on a rope pulled dumbwaiter. No more insults from the world’s rudest waiter (actually, he’s been gone a long time). No more two AM comfort food.

(To read more about Sam Wo’s, it’s history, the people who owned it, worked there, ate there, the attempts to keep it open, etc., check out this four minute YouTube video.)