Family Fare Three Generations Have Helped Make Cathay Inn A Spokane Landmark By Amy Cannata Staff Writer

The Cathay Inn is more than a Chinese restaurant. It’s three generations of a family’s work.

In 1950, Tom Eng, who had operated restaurants in Seattle and Tacoma, trekked over the Cascade Mountains to open Cathay Inn. Two years later, his son, Eddie, moved to Spokane from Hong Kong to work in the restaurant.

Since then, Eddie Eng has done whatever it took to keep Cathay Inn going strong.

In the ‘50s, he worked for eight and a half years without a day off. In the ‘70s, Eng learned how to play the drums so the house band’s drummer could take breaks without the music stopping.

Now 69, Eddie Eng has turned over the day-to-day operations of Cathay Inn to his 48-year-old son Dennis. But Eddie still stops by daily to check the kitchen, chat with regular customers and even prune bushes out front.

On June 26, the Engs will celebrate Cathay Inn’s 50th anniversary. Despite numerous expansions, the restaurant still operates at its original site at 3714 N. Division.

“All of my children grew up in it,” said Eddie Eng. “Even in grade school, they’d do side work.”

Dennis Eng remembers coming in after school to peel shrimp and make eggrolls. Later, he met his future wife, Magdalene, when she was working there as a waitress.

Cathay Inn founder Tom Eng died in 1997 at age 89.

As the family grew, so did the restaurant’s menu - more than 160 items are now listed.

“You change with the times,” said Eddie Eng. “Before it was more chow mein and chop suey. Now people want to eat more of the true Oriental style, cooked to order.”

Dinners that cost from $1 to $2 in 1950 now cost $8 to $12, and what was once a small, Chinese food hut with just 13 tables has expanded three times. Today the restaurant occupies 9,000 square feet, including multiple dining rooms, a banquet room and lounge.

Some 5,000 people eat at Cathay Inn each week.

Despite the popularity of stir-fry dishes, combination platters still rule the menu. Dennis Eng says the most popular menu item is the “#6,” which consists of almond fried chicken, barbecue pork, pork fried rice, prawns and Cathay Inn’s special chow mein.

Regular customer Bernie Fager, however, goes for the “#11,” a senior plate that includes almond fried chicken, sweet and sour pork and rice.

“They take pretty good care of me,” he said.

Fager has been eating at Cathay Inn for the past 40 years. When he retired in 1988, Fager began coming in on a daily basis.

“If he doesn’t come in, we’ll have the police looking for him,” Eddie joked.

And many of Cathay Inn’s employees have stuck with the restaurant nearly as long as Fager.

Coral Campbell has worked at the restaurant 25 years, starting as a cocktail waitress and working her way up to manager.

“This is a real family-oriented restaurant,” she said. “Almost everyone who works here has been brought in by friends or family.”

Eng takes pride in how Cathay Inn has set a standard while many other Chinese restaurants have come and gone. From food to decor, he said, Cathay Inn leads trends.

“I’m the first to use neon on the roof,” he said. “The pilots flying to Geiger Field (now Spokane International Airport) used us as a landmark.”