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From Hong Kong To Holdrege

Restauranteur finds good food is a draw no matter where you are in the world .

“Welcome” is printed in both Chinese calligraphy and English and spoken with a smile to greet customers who enter Adam and Cora Chen’s immaculate Chinese restaurant in Holdrege, Nebraska.

Families linger to enjoy the peaceful atmosphere, aromatic Chinese green tea and savory menu choices. Sai Dai Beef, and chicken, beef, shrimp, crab, and/or scallops prepared with garlic sauce or stir-fried with garden-fresh broccoli and mushrooms are favorites among the over 100 selections on the Gourmet House menu.

This is authentic Chinese cookery, too. Chen learned the restaurant business at his mother’s restaurant while growing up in Hong Kong. But, at age nineteen he said, “I told my mother that I had enough of the restaurant business and I intended to try another career.” He joined the Hong Kong police force.

A big move at mid-life

In 1986, Chen was 38 years old, married with three teenage children, and employed with the Hong Kong police. But as any parent knows, that doesn’t necessarily mean a peaceful life or easy decisions.

“Cora and I were content living in Hong Kong,” Chen says, “but our children wanted badly to emigrate to the U.S. We moved because we didn’t want our children to blame us when they grew up.”

They applied for a visa and a year later moved to San Francisco.

The American Dream

Hoping to own his own business in America, Chen capitalized on his years working for his mother at her Hong Kong restaurant. He acted on an opportunity offered by a friend who wanted to retire from his Chinese restaurant in Culbertson, Nebraska.

Chen took over the Culbertson business in 1992, but shortly thereafter realized that most of their customers drove from McCook, and the town was simply too small to support an ethnic restaurant. He soon sold the business and searched for space in a larger community to set up a restaurant from scratch. In 1993 he located space in a busy retail center on the north end of Holdrege.

Plans for expansion

The town embraced the Chens, and after almost ten years of cooking their specialties for the locals, they began looking for ways to expand their operation.

In 2002, the real estate company that manages the Gourmet House commercial space in Holdrege offered the Chens similar space in North Platte, thinking they would open another Chinese restaurant. But when the Chens surveyed the North Platte community, they counted three Chinese restaurants already in existence.

Chen said, “Four Chinese restaurants are too many for a town like North Platte, so instead we decided to open a Japanese restaurant.”

A new cuisine

Now Chen needed to learn Japanese cooking techniques and how to manage a Japanese restaurant. He applied and was accepted into a chef’s training school in San Francisco.

In September, 2003, the Chen’s hired a chef from San Francisco to manage the food preparation in North Platte and opened a Japanese restaurant specializing in tempura-style dishes. Today, Chen divides his time between the Holdrege and North Platte restaurants.

No Regrets

“I grew up in a big city and always lived in high rises,” Chen says. “In Holdrege, we bought a house with a yard and space for a garden...if we only had the time to garden.”

Despite the long hours – often more than 12 a day – Chen says he finds the space and quiet of rural Nebraska to be luxuries. He also enjoys the local fishing.

“When I lived in Hong Kong, I fished with a net in the ocean but I didn’t catch many fish,” he said. “I fish in Harlan County dam and the lakes and ponds near North Platte, and I nearly always catch drum, trout, or big mouth bass.”

Adam and Cora Chen are proof that hard work and a quality product are all you need to be successful...anywhere in the world.

Who To Contact...

Gourmet House
1503 Burlington Holdrege Plaza
Holdrege, NE 68949
(308) 995.6980

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