China Palace closes after 28 years in downtown Green Bay

Chris Rugowski

Contributor

December 27, 2023

GREEN BAY – The story of a downtown Green Bay staple – China Palace (213 N. Washington St.) – has come to an end, officially closing its doors for the last time just days ago.

Within two hours of announcing on social media in mid-December 2023, China Palace Owner James Feng said he had people calling and coming down in tears to say goodbye.

As he spoke of his decision, Feng looked around his restaurant as if he was watching his customers talking, smiling and eating, and said, “It’s time.”

“I’ve met a lot of customers, and I want to thank them for supporting me,” he said.

The food, the memories, the customers
Feng moved to Green Bay from Chicago with his girlfriend in 1994 at the age of 22 – at the time speaking little to no English.

His hopes of opening a restaurant came true a year later with the opening of China Palace on July 5, 1995.

Feng said he was drawn to the Northeast Wisconsin area for a variety of reasons, including the scenery of the bay and the lower cost of living.

“It’s a good place to raise a family and there wasn’t much crime, all combining to make living easier than Chicago,” he said.

Feng said his food was unique compared to the other Chinese restaurants in town, and that’s what ultimately drew people in.

For example, he said, the fried rice he made was Chicago style, whereas many of the others in town were East Coast style.

“Midwest food is different from the East Coast and West Coast,” he said. “They make it differently, from the sauce and the thickness to the salt and the color. Some of the restaurants here sell yellow fried rice, and that’s from the East Coast. Here in the Midwest, it’s always dark and brown.”

Before he opened China Palace, Feng said the closest place you could get Midwest-style fried rice was Milwaukee or Chicago.

He said many of his customers only ever came in for the fried rice.

James Feng opened China Palace in July 1995 after moving to the area from Chicago in 1994. Chris Rugowski Photo

Feng said another unique aspect that helped China Palace stand out was its sauces and essential dishes – all of which he said were made from scratch on-site and fresh to order.

“A lot of restaurants don’t make their own things anymore – we still made everything, pretty much, from scratch,” he said. “We don’t make the sauce ahead of time either, we made it when the food was ordered.”

Some of the restaurant’s best-selling dishes, Feng said, were sesame chicken, general Tso’s chicken, fried rice and a lot of egg foo young.

Feng said opening a restaurant in Green Bay, let alone downtown, was full of challenges, but what helped make him stand out was treating his customers like friends, and creating a community.

He said as he exits the restaurant business, he reminds everyone to be kind to others, regardless of who they are, “because you don’t need to spend money for a smile.”

Over the past 28 years, Feng said he’s seen a great deal of evolution in the downtown area, from the heydays of the ’90s with the Port Plaza Mall and free parking to the current days of modernization and the creation of a business district.

When he first opened, Feng said his vision was to have people come in, sit down and have good food.

Looking back – especially following the most recent years of a global pandemic and an economic downturn – the now 50-year-old said it’s fulfilling knowing he was able to accomplish that vision.

Now, Feng said, it’s time to move on and make way for someone else to follow their dreams, while he focuses on other passions.

“My son is 23, and my daughter is 21 and almost done with college – it’s time for me to do something I want to do,” he said. “Maybe take a year off, go golfing every day – do something I haven’t been able to do much in the past 28 years.” 

Asian Fusion Cuisines
In China Palace’s place will be a new restaurant, Asian Fusion Cuisines, which plans to open in early January.

Owners Savannah Xoing and Ying Vang said the menu will be a melting pot of cultural tastes and flavors from all of Southeast Asia, including, but not limited, to Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and the Philippines.

“We’re influenced by a different variety of food from the countries around us,” Vang said. “We don’t have a specific food in the Hmong culture.”

Vang said many dishes will include some sort of combination of rice, fish, beef, vegetables, fruits and spices.

One of the restaurant’s specialties, he said, will be pad Thai noodles.

Feng said he wishes Xoing and Vang all the best.

“They treat me like family – they’re nice people,” he said. “I hope they do good down here.”

Vang said he and Xoing are excited to follow their American dream – which starts with a foundation of good food.

“My wife loves cooking… it’s really good,” he said. “That’s why she came up with the idea.”

Asian Fusion Cuisines will offer Southeast Asian-inspired dishes, including chicken- khao poon curry noodle soup, pictured here. Submitted Photo

Originally from Laos, Vang said his wife has always wanted to own her own business.

“She came to America less than 10 years ago, and this is her dream,” he said. “We’ve been saving up to accomplish that for her.”

As the couple began looking for locations to open the restaurant, Vang said they weren’t finding any good fits.

That was until they heard Feng was looking to retire – then, Vang said, everything seemed to fall into place.

“He was planning to retire and sell his place, so we thought we might as well try to take over and see what the venture brings us,” he said.

Much like Feng, Xoing – who had many cousins work at China Palace over the years – and Vang said they are hoping to be at the Washington Street location for years to come.

“You put your whole life into a dream like this,” he said. “You want to make it work.”

What to expect
As they plan for the restaurant’s opening, Vang said the biggest changes beyond food selections will be aesthetics.

However, he said like China Palace, Asian Fusion Cuisines aims to provide a welcoming place for diners to sit down and enjoy a meal – encouraging long-standing patrons of Feng’s to stop by and check things out.

“We would love for (everyone) to come try the food and see if they like it and become a loyal customer of ours,” Vang said.

Hours for Asian Fusion Cuisines will be 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., 7 days a week.

More information can be found on the restaurant’s Facebook page.

Vang said they are working on creating a website and plan to have online ordering as well.