…sort of.
The real life restaurant I used for Lee Wei Ahn’s in the novel–the restaurant in Chinatown in the opening of The Death of Rafael–Sam Wo’s in San Francisco is in the news.
I changed a few things–like the location and the age of the place–but the waiter. Oh, the waiter! I don’t know if I had Edsel Ford Fung, the man himself ‘serve’ me, but the waiter I had did indeed slam the plate in front of me and would only hear the number of the item on the menu, interupted me with something of a bark when I said ‘chow mein.’ And the food was, well… interesting.
SAM WO'S IN SAN FRANCISCO