With little fanfare, one of Beijing's groundbreaking Western restaurants has closed its original location.
Steak & Eggs followed the original Grandma's Kitchen in popularizing the value-priced Western breakfast here in Beijing, shut its Jianguomen doors a few weeks back, and with it closed a chapter on one element of the downtown dining scene.
Alhough its glory days downtown have been behind it for awhile, Steak & Eggs was a godsend in Beijing a decade ago when Paul Astephen brought his hash-slinging skills from Daytona, Florida to sunny Jianguomen, on the restaurant strip just behind the Friendship Store.
With its typical American-style diner food, it was an instant hit with the embassy crowd. The restaurant plied its trade on the classic American diner breakfasts: bacon and eggs and all the requisite accoutrements; offered along with that came a healthy dose of lunch and dinner food: burgers, pies and turkeys with all the trimmings for Thanksgiving and Christmas.
After opening in 2003, the restaurant scored big with our readers in our 2004 Reader Restaurant Awards, winning the Best Brunch and Best Value categories, as well scoring runner-up awards for Best Service and Restaurant of the Year.
In its heyday Steak & Eggs was jammed every weekday lunch, and finding a seat on the weekends for breakfast was nearly impossible.
It's not that Western breakfasts didn't exist in Beijing at the time Steak & Eggs arrived -- however, the ones predating Paul's efforts mostly featured questionable authenticity, unreasonably high prices and/or werre typically staffed by Chinese employees unfamiliar with diner food and its accompanying cultural assocations.
Steak & Eggs was different -- it was a place where you'd always run into Paul and you'd never be greeted with a blank stare if you wanted Tabasco with your eggs or asked them to be cooked "over hard." Those hankering for a down-home diner experience appreciated the food, but even more they thrived on the somewhat hokey ambience that made the place a little slice of North America for the homesick.
Even as late as 2011 the restaurant inspired this rave review of its classic Christmas meal from former tbj Dining Editor Tom O'Malley.
However, as Paul and Co. moved on to other ventures in Beijing and competition multiplied, crowds at the Jianguomen location began to dwindle. I popped in to watch one of the games of the World Series last October on a weekday morning during breakfast and was the only customer for the duration of the four-hour game.
Alas, in some ways they were a victim of their own success. They paved the way for future restaurant entrepreneurs that drooled over the crowds, as well as trained a large number of staff that went on to copy the formula in their own ventures. This has resulted in a relative embarrassment of riches in terms of breakfast offerings in Beijing.
While the flagship location has sailed, Astephen and his partner Yang Yang have not -- they still ply the diner trade at their Shunyi location of Steak & Eggs in River Garden, and are in the soft opening stage of a second location on Shunyi's Jingmi Lu. They also make their living with their authentic Western food catering often done on contract with US companies doing business in China.
We can all thank Paul for raising the bar on affordable western down-home cuisine in Beijing.
Actually, Grandma was one of the first I heard about where the Chinese stole the business. When Peter's Tex Mex opened, one of the magazines did a story on Peter's, and it shared how Grandma from Grandma's Kitchen had helped Peter open the resturant after being forced out of Grandmas. She said it was due to "unenforceable contracts in China."
I agree that after Grandma was forced out, Grandma's Kitchen started the slow decline.
Um. What?
I DO remember going to Grandma's very clearly, the Jianguomen location. That was the only one I knew about for years; I didn't visit the Guomao, Wudaokou or Beixinqiao locations until years later. (Really like the Beixinqiao one, mainly for the awesome hostel; I put a lot of guests up there, when didn't have enough places for visitors to sleep at my apartment.) I remember that the Jianguomen Grandma's WAS packed the first few months. At the time, I remember enjoying the fun and the feeling of lots of expats trying out a new place. Then Paul's opened. I remember going back to try Grandma's there at Jianguomen a month of so after Paul's opened, and then tried it again at least once a month for a year or so--I hated to give up on what had had such a promising beginning, but each time I went, it was never as full as it was those first few months--and every time Paul's was packed (I had to walk past Paul's to get to Grandma's, and I'd look in the windows to see what the crowd was like.
Ok, so I know my phrase "atmosphere and attention to food" is very subjective. Guess that says more about what me than about Paul's. And that's a subject we could go round and round in circles discussing, and end up exactly nowhere.
Steven, you're... the Beijinger's main head editor guy or something, right?
Doubt wisely; in strange way / To stand inquiring right is not to stray; / To sleep, or run wrong, is. (Donne, Satire III)
I couldn't have put it better, Britomart. That's exactly it. Grandma's was nice, but not quite there, and it made you sick sometimes. That never happened at Paul's. He definitely paved the way more than Grandma's for the current rash of reasonably authentic Western food places.
"I remember going there occasionally when it first opened, but I have to say that Grandma's, at least at the Jianguomen location, just didn't have the atmosphere and attention to food that Paul's did."
Then clearly you don't remember going to Grandma's. Grandma was there at least until they expanded to the Jianwai SOHO location, and was packed for months. I don't think the phrase "atmosphere and attention to food" ever applied to Paul's.
Unbeknownst to most, Grandma's at the beginning actually had a Grandma -- from Texas, who was always at the shop. When she was there, it was great.
After she left, the place went from being special to being ordinary.
I always believe that a great restaurant has a soul behind it -- and that's usually the owner/founder. In most cases, when the owner/founder takes their eye off the ball, the place descends slowly into mediocrity.
Books by current and former Beijinger staffers
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Yeah, Grandma's WAS first... I remember going there occasionally when it first opened, but I have to say that Grandma's, at least at the Jianguomen location, just didn't have the atmosphere and attention to food that Paul's did. I know that sounds absolutely ridiculous now; today I would never consider Paul's to have a quality breakfast, let alone lunch, and now there are a lot homier restaurants that I'd choose over Paul's anyday. But at the time, Grandma's was just... not quite there. It was close, but still working on authentic food and atmosphere, not to mention that I'd occasionally end up sick after eating at Grandma's, which always made me suspicious that kitchen management didn't match the nice decor of the restaurant. Paul's decor was, well, kind of kitschy and weird and crazy, but the food (at the time) never once made me sick, and I could always ask for exactly what I wanted... I know, I know--us Westerners who want our food Exactly The Way We Want It. But it did make for a small bit of home those first few years in Beijing, when I was immersed in Chinese culture, friends and food, and occasionally needed a quick break from China, especially post SARS, when the other choices were Grandma's or the Chinese coffee shop that served microwaved waffles or sweet soggy toast or reheated frozen pizzas. When I first came to Beijing, there was NOTHING in the way of cheap Western restaurant food that was ACTUALLY Western. Grandma's came, and it was nice, but it felt... sad, like it was trying too hard, and ended up making me think what it ought to be like but wasn't quite. Paul's opened, and it felt to me like I was going to a weird bachelor uncle's house for dinner. Everything was kind of odd and crazy, but the food was exactly how it should be--greasy, lots of it, cheap, and definitely not a health food. Paul was also a lot chattier back then; my Aussie colleague and I would go at least once a week over lunch hour and spend time just swapping stories. Made 2003-2005 a kind of nice period in my life... After 2005, my office moved farther west, and I just didn't get over there as much. I feel, though, that Paul's did more to push forward the restaurant scene than Grandma's did, mainly because of Paul and Yang Yang. Yang Yang may be crazy, but she's a good businesswoman. With her on the business side, and Paul riding the kitchen and wait staff hard, it made for a good restaurant that managed to spread more successfully than Grandma's has. Now when I visit any of the Grandma's locations that are still around, the food has slipped a bit, and the atmosphere is still "almost there" but just not quite.
Doubt wisely; in strange way / To stand inquiring right is not to stray; / To sleep, or run wrong, is. (Donne, Satire III)
What's the difference between an American and a Canadian breakfast anyhow? I mean aside from the bacon. Or the replacement of a Dunkin' Donuts coffee and a Glazed Donut with a Tim Horton's Coffee and an Old Fashioned Donut?
Books by current and former Beijinger staffers
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Steven, me thinks the lady doth protest too much. Steak and Eggs was a big deal for many years and I think that was the point. I am sure other restaurants made burgers before McDonalds but it's iconic and that is what steak and eggs was for many of us.
Also what is with the Canada bashing? The man lived and still has property in Florida and the style he was selling was American breakfasts and other fair. If you have a problem with that fine but don't go painting us all with the same brush or suggesting we are all conveniently Canadian. Would it be correct of me to suggest you are acting like an ugly American?
The Dude Abides.
Pardon me if I don't shed any tears over the closure, but I'm shocked they lasted this long.
Steak & Eggs didn't pioneer the Western value breakfast in Beijing -- Grandma's Kitchen did. When the first Beijing location of Grandma's Kitchen opened during SARS in 2003, it was so busy that reservations became required FOR BREAKFAST. Steak & Eggs didn't open until Grandma's Kitchen was well established. Why did Steak & Eggs open there behind the Friendship Store? Oh, that's right, because that's where Grandma's Kitchen was.
Steak & Eggs is/was one of the few businesses in town that featured a Chinglish sign -- the English and Chinese slogans were wrong in both languages.
I once asked Paul's charming wife/companion for ice in my iced tea -- she snapped at me as she walked away to get it.
And finally...Paul may have moved here from Daytona Beach, but he's Canadian. Funny how Canadians are so keen to say they're not American, except when they splash "American Steak & Eggs" across their business.
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