By Frances Weller
Published: May. 27, 2024 at 7:03 AM EDT|Updated: May. 27, 2024 at 6:29 PM EDT
WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) - When Joe Hou decided it was time to get out of the restaurant business in Wilmington, it wasn’t easy. That’s because he’ll never forget the journey it took to get in--not the restaurant business, but America.
We’ll begin with his heritage.
“I’m Chinese--also Indian. I was born there,” Joe said. “And I’m Catholic. My life is beautiful.”
The owner of a Chinese restaurant, Joe says many people assume he grew up in China.
“Everybody looks at you they think you’re Chinese,” Joe said. “Actually, they never realized I never lived in China.”
Joe, who is Chinese, was born and raised in India. His parents moved from China to Calcutta before he was born.
“They don’t speak any of the Indian language--anything. All they believed in was that we were going to make it here. Make our children’s lives better.”
It was that same way of thinking Joe would take on later in life.
It was Joe’s education at a Catholic school in India that would prepare him for his move to America.
“You have a choice to go to Indian speaking school. So in Calcutta, you can go to the Bengali school. Calcutta, we speak Bengali, we don’t speak Hindi. And there you can pick a choice--go to go to the English school--that’s Catholic school--and a Hindi School.”
Joe developed a very strong work ethic at an early age. He was working in his family’s business long before he was a teenager.
“I would say like eight or ten years old.”
Joe’s parents owned a laundromat and a shoe repair shop before getting into the tannery business--making leather. When he finished high school, his parents wanted to prepare him to work for the family business.
“My parents sent me to the machinist school to deal with the machine. Because in the tannery there are a lot of machines that we deal with. We have a lot of labor. But we don’t have a lot of skilled labor to understand how the machine functions.”
After finishing machinist school Joe worked in the family’s tannery business. But his heart wasn’t set on making leather, even though it was profitable. It wasn’t even set on another job in India. Joe wanted to come to America.
“We watch too much of the Hollywood movie. That’s honest. You know Hollywood movies--exciting, you know, bright light, big city. You look at it-- ’Wow. Hmm. I’m going there.’”
Joe told his family he was leaving for America. That news did not go over well.
“My father said ‘No, no, no, no, no. Our business was just starting, we were doing good, you need to stay here to help your brother.’”
Joe says in his Chinese culture, the family picks out a wife early on. His parents tried.
“I didn’t get married. They want me to. I just tell them ‘No way.’ I told them ‘At least give me a chance to be who I am.’”
His mother was more accepting of the idea of moving to America. It was a hard sell for his father.
“I told my father, I said ‘When you crossed the ocean coming to India, what did you have in your head? You want to make our life better.’ I said ‘Give me a chance to be like you Daddy.’”
It took two years to get his father’s blessings, which he had to have before leaving. He was then 24 and a half when he came to America. His first stop?
“New York, New York.”
He was there for eight years, first helping a cousin who owned a restaurant there and then partnering with three other guys to open a restaurant of his own in Chinatown. It’s also where he met his wife--going against his culture--falling in love on his terms.
“I choose my pad, ok Frances. It’s good. Sally has been a very good wife--very supportive.”
The two would have their first child with plans for more, but not in New York. That’s when the journey brought them to Wilmington, N.C.
A friend he went to school with in India lived in Shelby, which is about an hour from Charlotte. He told Joe he thought Wilmington would be a great place to open a restaurant and raise a family.
“I never heard of Wilmington. He said it’s not a very big town, it’s a college town--we have a beach. He said there’s a restaurant for sale.”
Joe ended up buying a restaurant that he owned for four years, but it was the location where Szechuan 132 is now that ended up being the crown jewel.
The Chinese cuisine was a huge hit with locals. By now it’s the early 90s, the movie industry is booming and Joe is becoming a celebrity among celebrities.
“Julia Roberts was shooting the movie--like what is that--uh--Sleeping with the Enemy, right and we become good friends.”
For the next three decades, Joe Hou would endear himself to the Wilmington community. Having dinner at Szechuan 132 was like having dinner at a close friend’s or family’s home. Joe always made it a point to visit tables--chat with friends.
It was a great destination after a sometimes challenging journey. Selling the business, to ironically a couple from India, was not an easy decision.
“Very hard. Oh Frances it’s very hard. It took me a while. I thought about everything and I know that my grandchildren are right--I don’t want to miss that.”
Joe and his wife Sally raised their three children in Wilmington but he admits time at the restaurant robbed him of quality time with them. He and Sally now split their time between here and Chapel Hill, where the grandkids live.
“I don’t want to miss my grandchildren. Today, right, I know what my granddaughter likes to eat. She likes Indian food. I cook Indian food for her. She goes to cross country running, grandpa go, right.”
Joe says if he could do it all over again, he wouldn’t change a thing. For him, coming to America was a blessing.
“Coming to America--making your dream come true. This is the land of opportunity. Land of--you can be who you are. It is true. Even today even though we have so many negative things running around, I still believe in America.”
Copyright 2024 WECT. All rights reserved.
