Today, Westport is awash in Asian restaurants — from all corners of the continent.
There’s Kawa Ni, OKO, Pink Sumo, Little Kitchen, Tengda, Jeera Thai, Rainbow Thai, Hungry Pot, Gogi, Yuki Kitchen, Shanghai Gourmet, Tiger Bowl, The Naan and probably others I’ve missed.
In the 1950s, though — and continuing for more than 25 years — our choices were limited. There was West Lake and Golden House.
Golden House was located in Compo Shopping Center — where Little Kitchen is now, interestingly.
West Lake was on Main Street, near the Post Road. Today it’s a retail outlet. But for many years, Westporters thought it was one of the most exotic restaurants around.
The West Lake restaurant (left) in 1976, a year after it closed. The stores next to it — Liverpool and Welch’s Hardware — are also long gone. Anthropologie is on the opposite side of Main Street. (Photo/Fred Cantor)
West Lake lives on in memory. Thanks to Elizabeth Lee (granddaughter of the owners) and her cousin Beverly Au, it also lives on in a website.
West Lake Restaurant is a fascinating look — in words and photos — at long-gone Westport. It describes its founding in 1950 by Eddie and Frances Lee, as the 1st Chinese restaurant in Fairfield County.
West Lake, circa 1965.
West Lake, circa 1965. This is the back view, from Parker Harding Plaza.
West Lake took over the bankrupt Talley-Ho Tavern, which featured a grand piano with lounge singers. Because Parker Harding Plaza had not yet been built, a dock ramp led from the back door straight down to the Saugatuck River.
The Cantonese menu was “probably too far ahead of its time,” the website says. “When the cheaper and more common Chop Suey and Fried Rice style competitors opened, many patrons went to them.” (In deference to diners who did not eat Chinese food, in the beginning West Lake served steak and potatoes.)
Another view from Parker Harding Plaza of West Lake. The building at the right is the former Westport Library; today it is the brick building housing, among other tenants, Starbucks.
The regulars came every week or so. Eddie Lee knew them all by name. Famous regulars included Paul Newman and Supreme Court justice Abe Fortas. Mariette Hartley was a hostess there, while a student at Staples. She told Frances Lee, “I’m going to be an actress!”
The Lees met at NYU. Eddie majored in banking and finance. They married in 1930. He climbed the banking ladder, in the US, China and Hong Kong. In 1942 the Lees and their children were repatriated to the US in a diplomatic exchange.
But Eddie could not find a job in banking. After working for a tool company, he opened his restaurant in Westport.
Eddie Lee with customers. A brave woman gingerly tries chopsticks.
The average chef lasted 8 months, the website says. Though the waiters and waitresses stayed much longer, there was a rapid turnover among the cooks and dishwashers. They spoke only Chinese, and rarely mixed with Americans.
They lived above the restaurant, in barracks. “Every bed seemed to have a tiny nightstand with a fancy camera,” the website says. “They toured the country by working in a different Chinese restaurant every 6 to 9 months, sending home money to their families in China, and taking pictures of their travels.”
West Lake was open 7 days a week. Though it closed in 1976, it had something in common with its Asian cuisine successors: December 25 was one of its busiest days of the year.
Even in the 1950s, Jews ate Chinese food on Christmas.
(Friday Flashback is one of “06880”‘s many regular features. If you enjoy this — or anything else on our website — please consider a tax-deductible contribution. Just click here. Thank you!)
I remember it well from when I would spend summers here as a kid and young teen. Thanks for stirring my memories.
Fond memories of picking up take out. Mr Lee was wonderful
West Lake was our family favorite 😍 the steaming dishes covered by those silver domes. The pea pods were so fresh. Miss those days.
The West Lake – A Christmas Eve tradition for the staff and Kramer family of The Remarkable Bookshop. On 12/24 there was always a case of Champagne on the back steps of the bookshop. At 5 PM the doors shut and last minute shoppers, along with the exhausted staff, would celebrate the end of the busiest season. After toasts and closing the cash register, we’d make the annual trek down Main St. to the West Lake – probably the only restaurant open in Fairfield County! This is a tradition that the Kramer/Posner family continues to this day. 21st Century urban update – Christmas Eve in Chicago’s Chinatown is always a mob scene!
West Lake was the go to restaurant for special occasion dinner parties before Miss Comer’s Dancing School on Friday evenings at the Y, birthday parties, dances at school etc. It was a well loved and familiar place!
Almost every time my parents parked in Harding Plaza with us we were reminded to never eat at West Lake. They didn’t like the looks of it. As good Saugatuck Italians, the only places they trusted outside the family kitchens were Mario’s and the Arrow since they knew the families well and trusted them not to poison us. Years later in high school, however, a first date picked West Lake for dinner. Yes, of course I agreed (following the small panic attack that ensued) – It was absolutely wonderful. We returned many times, although the parents were never to know of it. Amazing to see that view of Harding Plaza after so many years.
It’s funny, but for whatever reason, my family was a Golden House family, and I never went to West Lake, not once. When Leong’s Palace brought puu-puu platters and other Asian fusion dishes to Westport in the mid-70s, we tried it a few times, but that style was way too exotic for my father’s conservative palate, so it was right back to Golden House.
My parents Ed and Kay See at at West Lake every Friday night after their tennis game with their friends Pan and Phil Smith. Eddie Lee always greeted them by name. Dad was the town attorney so perhaps Eddie also knew him through legal work. They ordered martinis and I brought my boyfriend (later husband) there and he had his first martini there. Since then he has only had martinis on Friday in memory of my Dad! What a special place.
Eloise See McGaw
Eloise – I’ll just jump in again here to say that as a young lawyer I had the pleasure of working with your dad on a few matters. He was an extremely good lawyer but an even greater gentleman. As with many old timers I am sure, I remember him fondly.
I don’t remember West Lake, but wasn’t there another Chinese restaurant there after called Peking Inn?
Eloise, yes the Lees were clients of your dad’s firm, Wake, See and Dimes. I got to know the Lees when I was a young attorney at the law firm. Very nice people. But your mom and dad, Ed and Kay See, are among the finest people I have ever known, and your dad was a role model for me.
West Lake and later Peking Inn were a family tradition, especially on Christmas Eve even though we weren’t Jews. When we came in they’d seat us near the two booths near kitchen and the cash register because my brother and I were troublesome, rumbling under the table and being told don’t drink your soda fast, you’re not getting another. Years later, meeting my father many times at Peking Inn, he couldn’t resist the dad joke when asked, table for two? “No, just peeking in.”