This weekend, I drove down to Eugene to see some friends and to say good bye to a local institution: Louie’s Village. Louie’s is an old school Chinese restaurant that’s been in Eugene since I was a little girl. It’s where my family always went for Chinese when I was growing up. The original owners are retiring, and the children are not interested in staying in the family business, so they’re closing at the end of the year.
My dad worked in the wholesale meat industry when I was growing up, and Louie’s was one of his clients. That meant that if we ate there, someone from the family would always come over and chat with us. In grade school, we had a banquet there after a field trip to the Museum of Asian Art at the University, and my dad introduced the owner of the restaurant to the class. Everyone seemed very impressed. It’s funny what impresses you when you’re 8.
Over the years, we saw a lot of the Louie family grow up and out of the restaurant as they went to high school and college.
I always had the same thing when I ate at Louie’s: the Louie’s Special beef chow mein, and the egg roll.
The egg rolls there were giant, and delicious.
They still are.
I can’t believe I’ll never get to have them again. No other restaurant makes them quite the same way. Today the place was packed, and the waitress said that they’ve been running out of egg rolls, so evidently my friends and I are not the only people who love them. People have been buying them in bulk and freezing them. I understand the impulse completely.
We decided to say our good-byes today, and not bring any egg rolls home with us. They just wouldn’t be the same without the context of the cheesy decor and bad beer.
It probably seems like an odd thing to get sentimental about. I suppose it is. They’re kind of like Proust’s madeleines for me, in the form of a time warp Cantonese joint straight out of the 60’s. It’s an era that we’re losing. Maybe that’s good in some ways. Certainly there are places with better food and ambiance these days.
I’ll miss the giant egg rolls, though.
And the kitsch.
