Something unusual happened Tuesday morning. For the first time in 33 years the Corkwood Restaurant didn”t open for breakfast. The doors were also locked for lunch and dinner as well.
That didn”t stop at least one person from coming by looking for something to eat. He left hungry.
Tucked into a corner of the San Bruno Bowling Center (previously known as Woodhaven Lanes) on West Main Street, the Corkwood closed with a “Game Over Celebration” Sunday afternoon, the victim of a landlord-tenant dispute.
To be frank, the restaurant itself isn”t much to look at. The booth seating is cramped and a throwback to the 1960s and 1970s with stools stationed around two horseshoe-shaped dining counters. It”s windowless. And the main entrance is located off the bowling ally with a secondary entrance beyond a short hallway.
One part of the seating area is air-conditioned while a much larger banquet hall relies on fans to keep people cool.
The kitchen is cramped with hardly room for more than three people.
People bowling often bought their beers in the restaurant and would leave them on the counter when it was their turn to knock down a few pins before returning for a few more swigs. Liquor isn”t yet allowed in the bowling center.
But people didn”t eat at the Corkwood for the ambiance. They came for the food, knowing it would be the same from day to day, without embellishment. The menu hasn”t changed in decades. It offering breakfast “all day every day,” and features scores of traditional American foods — along with a smattering of Chinese cuisine — served in a non-distinguished way.
It is of such things that memories are built. The Woodland Chamber of Commerce once held its monthly meetings there. So did nearly every community group like the Kiwanis and Rotary. Banquets were common. Weddings and engagement parties used the dance floor.
On the day of its closing, the food remained the same: Ham, turkey, roast beef and an assortment of fruits and vegetables. All prepared by Corkwood owner and chief cook Charlie Chu along with his staff. In fact, Chu was still in the kitchen as people started arriving, stirring sauces, chopping tomatoes and putting meat into warming ovens.
He had to be reminded by a daughter that he “needed to get out of the kitchen and talk to people.” He did. For a few minutes at least, taking off his apron, hanging it around his shoulders and shaking a hands.
Then it was back into the kitchen.
There were plenty of people to talk to. More than 140 individuals gladly parted with $15 each for a final dinner at the restaurant on Sunday to relive memories and say their good-byes to one of Woodland”s oldest restauranting families.
Supporters, many elderly, used walkers and canes to arrive. They brought their children and their grandchildren. And, it seemed, each had a story to tell.
Chu spent his life at the restaurant. He married his wife, Wendy, in the early 1980s at the restaurant, and celebrated their anniversaries there. On Sunday, Wendy was with her husband preparing food, serving, and making sure all the guests were comfortable.
Kerry Fong, started working at the restaurant in February 1981, when it was still owned by Buck Fong. She went on to marry one of Fong”s sons, and left for nine years to raise a child before coming back in 1991. She”s never worked anywhere else.
For Kerry, the restaurant has been her life and in its final hours she was dressed in the same type of clothes she”s worn for decades: white blouse, black pants and apron. She had little time to talk. The customers came first.
Chu bought the restaurant from Fong in 1981 and kept the menu unchanged.
“Thirty-three years is a long time,” Chu said in broken English as he prepared strips of roast beef for his diners Sunday night.
“Four generations of families have been more than just customers to me, they have been a very big part of my life and I am sad to say it”s time to stop,” he said earlier.
Overlooking the banquet hall was Gloria Baily, who saw people were seated and ran last-minute errands.
Baily was a volunteer, coming out one last time to share her memories with others.
“I just want to help him,” she said of Chu and his family. “My heart”s broken that it”s closing.”
“Oh, those hash browns,” she said unprompted as memory intruded into the conversation. “It was food made plain and simple.
“My daddy used to take us to church at 7 a.m. so we could come here for breakfast,” she said. “I loved those hash browns.”
The Corkwood was founded in 1964, and continued operations when Woodhaven Lanes closed about two years ago. And it was operating when Salvatore Muzzi bought the building and reopened it as the Woodland Bowling Center less than a year ago.
Not that it was easy to tell the restaurant was open. The Corkwood”s location makes it difficult to find. It also required a large banner hung outside on a wall to even tell it was operating.
Chu was evicted by Muzzi about two months ago. Muzzi said he needs the space.
According to Kim Thompson-Gabbard, a server at the restaurant, the 60-day eviction notice was up June 7. She noted that Chu and Muzzi attempted talks, but couldn”t come to an agreement.
Now that the restaurant is closed, Chu has indicated he might open someone else. Or, maybe not. Time will tell.
On Sunday, however, the celebration was a way for decades of patrons to say their goodbyes to Chu, his family and the staff who has been there, pouring water, bringing plates of food, and becoming as much friends as they were waiters and waitresses.
“Charlie is done,” Thompson-Gabbard said previously. “Charlie has helped to provide jobs to a lot of local families. This is the closure of a very good business.”
Staff didn”t say their good-byes on Sunday, however.
Monday morning, Kerry Fong and others were back at work, tearing down what they could. Some equipment has been sold to other restaurants. Some to private individuals who wanted tangible memories.
Soon, the only reminder of a 50-year-old part of Woodland will be a lot of open space and thank you notes hanging from bulletin board on the walls.
