I just wanted to add: beers at Sun Wah were a very reasonable $2 or $3 when I was there about a month ago, including Goose Island Matilda, which went great with the BBQ duck.

I have been wanting to go to Sun Wah for some time. What would be the best order for a family of 4---two adults, two kids?

Dave148 wrote:Nice articles from today's Trib - http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertain ... 9658.story and http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertain ... 538.column

In all honesty, the piece by Chris Borrelli really bummed me out. It made it seem like no one at Sun Wah is particularly happy, which surprised me because they are always so friendly and enthusiastic in person. I wonder how the Chengs feel about the story. They clearly offered many candid quotes, which didn't paint the prettiest picture. It wouldn't surprise me if they were less than thrilled with it.

Purely from a reader's perspective, I suppose it was nice to get a story about a restaurant that wasn't just a puff piece. However, knowing the subjects of the story made it pretty hard for me to feel anything but sad and tense.

=R=

I felt the same way. Honest, but not something I'd want to share with the public.

Borelli may have a knack for emphasizing the darker side of things-He seemed to do some of this with the Xoco article awhile back. What surprises me in both cases is the quotes he was able to extract from people.

stewed coot wrote:Borelli may have a knack for emphasizing the darker side of things-He seemed to do some of this with the Xoco article awhile back. What surprises me in both cases is the quotes he was able to extract from people.

I'm not surprised at all. The Changs and very honest and show little artifice. What you see is what you get...in food as well as real life.

I've been going to Sun Wah for around 12 years, and still can't say I know the Chengs personally. I certainly wouldn't doubt their honesty and lack of artifice. My deal is that revealing behind the scenes stuff to that extent is something I find surprising, because I value (perhaps overly so) a good deal of privacy, which, again, has nothing to do with lack of honesty. Jazzfood's point hits home for me.
Of course the Chengs can share whatever they want with reporters, and it's none of my business... thinking a little further, my real concern is that the article and review may cause an onslaught of new customers, leading to an overwhelming effect for the restaurant, and more selfishly, a difficult dining experience.

I'm with Steve. Sounds like a close family with few insecurities. Maybe Borelli could have been fairer and shown more rays of light breaking through the clouds, but I didn't read it as an overwhelmingly depressing piece.

Although I've only been to Sun Wah once, about 8 or 10 months ago when they were still in their old location, we had a wonderful meal that we still talk about to this day.

But as I read Borelli's article in the Tribune, my thought was that this restaurant won't be around in 2 or 3 years, or at least not with the Cheng family at the helm. Because, really, who can tolerate working in an environment that tense 70 hours a week (and then not have an escape from it when you go home, on top of it all).

An an Asian person, I totally related to the article. I didn't find the article too "dark" or "depressing"...the dynamics and generational tension that Chris portrayed among the Chengs is very similar to the family dynamics in many of my Asian friends' family-owned businesses, or even in my own (that's why it's my brother who went into the family business, and not me, in order to preserve family harmony). I think the article is very well-written and I commend the Chengs for their honesty. And as a long-time Sun Wah fan, it makes me want to go back to the restaurant even more!

Having had a little behind the scenes experience with them myself, Borrelli's account rings true but I guess I don't see it in as dark terms as he does or others do. If personal strain is ever going to come out, 70+ hour weeks opening a restaurant seem like the time it would, but I also see it as creative ferment between the three of them as they adjust to their roles and contribute differently, which I don't think any of us would disagree has taken an old favorite to some new heights, not without some stumbles, but definitely moving them up in the world. Now, somebody may decide enough of this craziness, and go do something else along the way, that's life, but I think Borrelli's account gives a believable picture of how you grow a business in the close confines of family and how you may have difficulties along the way, but nobody needs to call Gordon Ramsay just yet.

In all business there is tension. In family business there is more, and it feels a little more tragic, and reads better in the paper. That's all.

The end result there is just so good, I can't imagine failure.

I read the Sun Wah piece as particularly life affirming. At one point in his life, Eric Cheng was clinging to a tire in the middle of the ocean. At another, he was unemployed in a foreign country with a newborn baby at home.

Now, his biggest problem is trying to figure out how to make a wildly successful business even more wildly successful. That and his kids spend a lot of time arguing about the business. The family dynamic details didn't strike me as dark or negative ... they struck me as real. I couldn't help but read this article with a smile of recognition from start to finish.

Family lives together and works together 70 hours a week argues on daily basis!

Borrelli isn't really making a news splash here - dad immigrates and gains success, family has independent success but sacrifices to maintain the dream and make it something bigger, adaptation occurring in the face of a changing neighborhood creating questions and doubts of trading tradition vs. uncertain future. - the arguments / fighting is not really all that surprising and really more comforting to me considering I could never imagine working and living with my family in this manner and not having arguments.

Borrelli may just be a journalist and this a 'slice of life' story documenting the flip side of a local phenom, but I would like to see him take a small editorial leap to connect the conflicts he documents as really part of the down side of the attainment of the 'America Dream' which would give this article more legs.

Hi,

I have friends who were bookended by neighbors with teenagers. One household was quiet and orderly. The other family was noisy and argumentative. Later the argumentative group was more bonded and visited their parents more often. The kids in the quiet family were almost never present after they grew up. They suggested in all that arguing they were communicating better, though it didn't seem like it earlier.

The Cheng children have done very well through all their arguing. They have conquered social media to move their business along. Made Peking Duck a hot item in their restaurant. Moved their business into new space, which they oversaw personally the make-over. The baptism by fire they experienced very likely provided a greater sense of ownership over a business founded by their Dad. For second generation owners, they are doing quite well.

There is help for family businesses negotiating personal and business relationships. Loyola University has the Family Business Center dedicated to this. The family who own Nielsen-Massey Vanillas have been long term participants who felt it strengthened their business. Just doing a quick look I see the Glunz family are also involved, who are in wine and beer.

Since 1990, the Family Business Center (FBC) has been dedicated to strengthening multi-generational family businesses of varying sizes, industries and complexities. Through research, education and networking, the Center provides a unique community where family business owners can find support, learning and guidance on the complex challenges they face. These innovative programs provide members the opportunity to share knowledge and cultivate synergies with one another to push the frontier of family enterprise to new levels.

Regards,

As noted by that famous (although his name escapes me) researcher of what makes some marriages last and others fail, argumentativeness is not an indicator of incompatibility.