First owners sold to daughter a year ago
The downtown Chinese restaurant Cheung Sheng is celebrating 20 years in business this year.
In August 1988, Techeng and Lucy Fu decided to come to Hollister from the Bay Area and open a restaurant. They bought Winnie’s Kitchen and changed the name to Cheung Sheng.
Their daughter, Ellen Fu, bought the restaurant from them a year ago.
“They were living the American dream,” Fu said.
It was a family effort for many years when her dad was the chef, her mom prepared everything, she and her sister were waitresses and her two younger brothers washed dishes, she said. They worked seven days a week, she said.
Her dad taught her everything she knows, and Fu said until he left, she didn’t know how much she really did know. The food, though, remains the same because her dad gave her the family’s secret recipe for the sauce they use, she said.
The restaurant is in store for some changes, too, as Fu is designing a Web site for the business and wants to put in new carpeting and have a mural painted on the outside walls, she said.
She is marketing the restaurant – which also delivers large orders, caters and hosts parties – by placing advertisements in the newspaper and through word of mouth.
Fu noted how the restaurant also caters to people who are diabetic and it makes specific dishes for them.
The business has grown over the years. When the restaurant was first opened, there were only eight tables. Today there are 22.
With prices elsewhere rising in general, Fu said Cheung Sheng is keeping them down.
And Fu hopes the family tradition continues. She hopes her daughter will take over the business when she gets older, she said. Hopefully, we will survive another 18 years,” Fu said.
