Kowloon Plans For Closure, But Says It Won't Be Anytime Soon

SAUGUS, MA — It's not yet closing time for Kowloon Restaurant, representatives of the Route 1 landmark reassured customers Thursday night. An appearance by members of the Kowloon team at a Saugus Planning Board meeting turned some heads, as the eventual closure and redevelopment of the property was announced.

But that isn't happening for some time. According to a statement on Kowloon's Facebook page, the restaurant is "only planning for the future, which is years, not months, away."

"The process to get the local boards to do their due diligence and approve any project is not an overnight process," the statement continued. "So our family is just getting some preliminary legwork started."

The iconic restaurant just finished its 70th year of business. It opened in 1950 as The Mandarin House — a 24-person Chinese restaurant — before the Wong family bought it in 1958, transforming it into the 1,200-diner behemoth it is today.

William Wong was the visionary, taking inspiration from his honeymoon, which included stops in Honolulu, San Francisco and Miami, to give the restaurant its gaudy flair. In the early days, he did the cooking, and his wife, Madeline, was a waitress and hostess, according to his obituary.

At the time of his death in 2011, Wong had been in the Hospitality Hall of Fame for 10 years, having built Kowloon into a multi-million dollar business that employed 250 people. The restaurant is now owned by Wong's children.

Outside its gargantuan menu of Asian dishes — running the gamut from Chinese-American to Japanese to Polynesian — and colorful cocktails, Kowloon is known for hosting comedy nights and opened a drive-in theater and carhop last summer.

It's been a rewarding experience for the Wongs, but also a demanding one.

"There will be an end at some point ... just not now," the family said.