The House of Chan Is Opening a New Location in Millidgeville
SAINT JOHN – In the mid-1990s, Holly Singh hired Ken Singh to work at her restaurant in Hampton. She gave him some vegetables to cut on his first day and he diced them up quickly. “He was so fast,” said Holly, imitating his chopping motions as she told the story. “I knew he wasn’t sticking around long!”
Sure enough, Holly was right. After five or six months, Ken left to open his own place in Brunswick Square – the House of Chan.
He had worked for the original House of Chan restaurant in the north end that was very popular with Saint Johners in the late 1970s and 80s. Soon after it closed in 1995 Ken asked the owners if he could buy the name for his new place rather than create his own brand.
“When the opportunity came up to open something in Brunswick Square, I needed a good name,” said Ken. “People knew the House of Chan … so I bought the name.”
Ken and Holly still operate the Brunswick Square House of Chan.
Like many of the House Chan’s longtime customers, Holly has childhood memories of going to the original one in Hilyard Place. “My father took me there,” she said. “It was a fine-dining restaurant [back then],” she said.
They opened a new location in Quispamsis in 2014 and now they’re opening another new one in Millidgeville sometime this spring. It’s currently under construction in the same building as the Irving gas bar and Circle K Convenience store.
It will be a 30-seat restaurant with a modern, clean design much like the one in Quispamsis, and have a similar menu. It’s not the style of the original House of Chan of the 70s and 80s, with its emphasis on chicken balls and sweet sauce. Today’s restaurants have more healthy options, with Thai a well as Chinese dishes.
The Brunswick Square location is buffet style with dishes resembling the original House of Chan, but Ken says they may soon bring the menu and overall brand in line with the Quispamsis location and Millidgeville when it opens.
The Singhs, who also own Thandi Restaurant and Hopscotch Whisky Bar uptown, were looking around for a place to locate a new House of Chan and Ken had a conversation with Irving about the space next to the gas bar and convenience store.
Greg Moase, co-owner and manager of the Quispamsis location, will oversee the Millidgeville one as well. He said the location is the right choice given the large residential population and the proximity of the Air Canada contact centre, the hospital and the university.
“There are not many restaurants around here,” said Moase. “A lot of people work and live around here. It made a lot of sense.”
Plus, says Ken, it doesn’t hurt to be next door to a gas station and convenience store.
“People buy their gas, buy Chinese food and go buy pop and chips …. all in one place.”
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