Imperial on Wicklow Streets closes - my thoughts
Created Wednesday, 24th October 2012, 13:27 by Whykay
I was walking down Wicklow Street with my husband, my brother, his wife and their wee son last week, and I noticed that the Imperial wasn't open. I saw this news in the The Irish Times that they are closed after being put into receivership by Bank of Ireland.
This is pretty sad news, I remember whenever I visited Dublin when I was a kid, we always end up having lunch or dinner here. Most of the Cantonese-speaking community and its business community tend to bump into each other here. Another era gone.
This brings me back to my family business down in Limerick which is still run by my mom and my brother, which was the first Chinese restaurant to open in Limerick, if we the only ones left? Is it good for the next generation to move on to other sectors? I think it is, I'm in the tecchie sector and currently mingling with people in startups and researching for a game exhibition. How much more removed am I from my parents business, who put their own dreams on hold to work blood, sweat and tears to put me and my siblings through school and college. We are lucky to have options.
It's like a small chapter of my childhood really ended. I wonder how many more restaurants opened by Hong Kong people closed in the last 5 to 10 years since they were the original immigrants before the next wave of Chinese from Mainland China in the 90s?