In a small California town, a 100-year-old Chinese restaurant gets ready to close. As Paul Fong retires, this short film follows him and his wife Nancy beyond the headlines—through quiet moments, old family footage, and the slow process of letting go.

Director statement
Kristie Chow: I’ve spent years creating videos about Chinese American food history, but this was my first time making a film. I pulled together a small crew—a DP I’d met once in L.A. who happened to be back from Taiwan, and two film students I met while taking a class at a community college. We filmed during off-hours, when things were quiet and unhurried.

The question of “what happens now?” has been following me for a while, especially as historic Chinese restaurants close across the country. When I started filming at Chicago Cafe, I thought I was telling a history story. With generous help from the Yolo County Archives and local historians, we shot a lot of material about the broader past—but most of that footage never made it into the film. The story kept pulling me toward Paul and Nancy. Toward the texture of their daily life.

The dining room chairs in their home came from the restaurant. Nancy uses old soy sauce buckets in the garden; Paul uses them to hold his fishing rods. The lines between work and life, restaurant and home, past and present—none of them are clean.

I ended up making this film not to explain Chinese American food history, but to step back from it. To sit with two people at a moment of transition, and to try to understand what it means to let go of something that’s shaped you for so long.