Far East on the South Coast

by Michael J. DeCicco

A prime example of an Asian-American immigrant’s success on the South Coast is Ying Zhao. The first of his Ying Dynasty chain of restaurants opened at 724 Dartmouth Street, South Dartmouth, in 2003. His second location opened in the former Cathay Temple building in Mattapoisett at 24 County Road in 2010. His location at 4422 Acushnet Avenue, Sassaquin, New Bedford, debuted in 2012, and the former China Garden eatery became “Ying” at 265 Marion Road, Wareham, in 2016.

Zhao and his family emigrated to Fairhaven from Xinhui, China in the small province of Guangdong, when he was 15 years old. A week after arriving In America he started working as a dishwasher at his aunt’s restaurant, Wah May in downtown New Bedford, as he overcame language and cultural barriers to earn his diploma from Fairhaven High School. His next job was working as a bartender at his uncle’s restaurant, Gumbo, in North Dartmouth.

He wasn’t seriously considering becoming a restaurateur until after meeting his wife on a trip back to China. Because his wife was pregnant by the time he had to return to America, he became serious with his career, and his Ying Dynasty chain of Chinese cuisine eateries were born.

“Believe it or not I didn’t really have a plan,” he said. “I just knew that I didn’t want to and couldn’t continually live in this fantasy life where everything is spur-of-the-moment. So I guess I have to thank my kids for being the motivation for me to be serious about my career.”

For his Mattapoisett expansion, Zhao said he has to thank “a very special man in my life – Angelo D. Paolini Chicky. He was the landlord of Mattapoisett location. I didn’t know him back then; one day he and his business partner Michael J. Penta walked into my Dartmouth restaurant and looked to speak with the owner. I sat down with them and he asked me if I am interested in taking over the old Cathy Temple. I learned that their company owns the property and land of 24 County Road in Mattapoisett; the tenant had been behind in rent for a long time. And they were looking for someone to take over the space. I went to check the place, thought about if I am capable of opening another restaurant, and I said yes.”

Similarly, he was able to open the restaurants in New Bedford and Wareham because of the good rapport he had with their previous owners.

Zhao’s former coworkers say there is another reason for his success, though, starting with his reputation for having a generous and trustworthy nature. Summer, who declined to reveal her last name, said his experience has taught him a lot about opening a business successfully. “The more you do, the more you know to do it right,” she said. “Getting a proposal up and running gets him excited. When he walks into a new restaurant space, he knows what job needs to get done.”

Today, Zhao is working on reopening the former China Lantern on Nauset Street in New Bedford.

He said there’s no set timetable for its grand re-opening. He acquired the property two years ago, but the challenges of running a business in a pandemic has been the biggest obstacle.

He is grateful for his success but realistic about future expansions. “We are lucky we can still keep on going,” he said. “I know a lot of restaurant owners in Boston and New York that have had to shut down. But I am still hoping to get Nauset Street open. I want to thank all my customers for all of their support right now.”

In Fall River, Ricky Tith has a unique perspective on how the entrepreneurs of his community survive and thrive. He’s the owner of the Cambodian cuisine Hong Meas Restaurant, at 418 Quequechan Street, and he’s founder/director of the Cambodian American Resource Organization.

The organization he formed in 2013 helps Cambodian immigrants with a variety of services related to their cultural and language differences and difficulties. It assists with the naturalization and citizenship process, finding housing, and communicating better with the public and private sector through interpreter services, whether in court, city hall, or at a medical facility.

Tith, himself a Cambodian native, said the main focus is to help Cambodian and other Asian immigrants network with any organization they are having trouble communicating with. There are only seven Cambodian-owned businesses in Fall River, and the challenge for those entrepreneurs to succeed starts with the language barrier in dealing with city hall and running their business under all the right regulations and other practices, he said. He estimates that CARO has helped approximately 1,000 families and people since it formed.

He said all of his life, he’s lived with having to work his own way up. So now, he said, “I know what needs to be done for others to succeed. I like to roll up my sleeves and help. My father told me, to every crisis, there is always a solution.”

This philosophy has also served him well in his personal journey. His family brought him from Cambodia to South Philadelphia when he was six years old, then to Providence, where he graduated from the local middle school and high school. His father then moved the family back to South Philly where Ricky and his father helped with a family-run Cambodian grocery market there. When his mother suffered a stroke, they moved to a housing project in Fall River, because the medical care benefits were better in this state.

Tith was a quality control manager for Tre-Mack Plastics in Fall River when he heard the Cambodian restaurant at 418 Quequechan Street was closing. He jumped in to take ownership of it because he didn’t want to see Fall River lose one of its Cambodian eating places.

That was only two months ago, Tith said. “It was a scary thing to do, especially in a pandemic. But I didn’t want there to be only one Cambodian restaurant in Southeastern Massachusetts. I knew about quality control and Cambodian food produce. So my wife and I said let’s take the risk.”

Hong Meas opened on Jan, 1, 2021. “It was scary fast,” he said. But in two short months, he said, “Sales have doubled what we expected.” He said that’s all due to tremendous support from friends, family, and the community. Both their dine-in and takeout/delivery services keep them busy.

He easily relates his own business success to the need for his CARO organization to succeed. “This is the community response I need to be able to push forward the Cambodian and Southeast Asian community,” he said. “Without the help of the larger community, we all won’t be able to make it.”