After 36 years on 930 Race Street, Chinatown restaurant Shiao Lan Kung will be closing its doors for good this January, with the retirement of 69-year-old proprietor King Au.
The Cantonese spot got its start in 1987, six years before Au and his family emigrated to Philadelphia from Hong Kong. He found work as a cook at the restaurant, then owned by his aunt and her son, until 2009 when he officially took over the business.
Throughout that time there’s been little change, with the restaurant building a reputation on its no-frills approach and late-night weekend hours.
“It’s [been] the same Cantonese restaurant and kitchen since I came to America,” Calvin Au, the proprietor’s 40-year-old son, told Billy Penn. He singled out specialties like SLK’s hot and sour soup, beef chow fun, and dry sautéed chicken with black bean sauce, plus popular dishes like pork dumplings and salt-baked squid, scallops, and shrimp, highlighting the latter as his personal preference.
With siblings Maggie and Robert, Au formed the third generation at the restaurant, working simultaneously as “waiter, manager, CFO,” for several years.
“[It was] lots of work,” Au recalled. “Lots of good friends that I met, and lots of memories.” Having a restaurant in Chinatown as the family business, he said, provided “a great opportunity to serve the community.”
Now a full time accountant — he left SLK in 2014 to pursue his own career, only stepping in since to help out when needed — Au explained he has no interest in continuing the family business, nor the required skills to do so.
“I can only add and subtract,” Au joked. “I don’t know how to cook.”
He said he’s unsure of plans for the space, which his family has been renting, beyond vacating it.
Shiao Lan Kung’s last day of service will be Sunday, January 14.
