Edsel Ford Fong
Edsel Ford Fung | |
|---|---|
 Edsel Ford Fong with his customers in 1982 | |
| Born | May 6, 1927[citation needed] San Francisco, California, United States |
| Died | April 24, 1984 (aged 56) |
| Occupation | Waiter |
| Known for | Being described as the world's rudest waiter |
Edsel Ford Fung (often spelled Fong) (May 6, 1927 – April 24, 1984) was an American restaurant server from San Francisco, California.[1] He was called the "world's rudest, worst, most insulting waiter" and worked at the Sam Wo Chinese restaurant.[2]
Life
[edit]Fong was born and raised in San Francisco's Chinatown. He worked the second floor of the Sam Wo Restaurant on Washington Street. (The restaurant name means "three in peace", a reference to its founding partners.)[3] As head waiter, Fong greeted visitors with an admonition to "Sit down and shut up!"[4] He was known for calling patrons "retarded" and "fat", criticizing people's menu choices and then telling them what they should order, slamming food on the table, and complaining about receiving only 15% tips. An imposing man with a crew cut hair style, he also was notorious for seating people with strangers, forgetting orders, cursing, spilling soup on customers, hazing newcomers, refusing to provide forks or English menu translations, and busing tables before diners were finished.[5]
Fong was made famous by columnist Herb Caen, who often described the misanthropic Fong during his visits to Sam Wo. Caen would interview Fong on matters of local politics and gossip, then reprint Fong's Yogi Berra-like responses, which Fong would in turn proudly show to his loyal regulars.[5] Caen included Fong in his guide of things to do in San Francisco, under "58. See the world's rudest waiter".[6] Shirley Fong-Torres described Edsel Fong as one of the main attractions of Sam Wo in her 2008 book The Woman Who Ate Chinatown, saying that customers "came to see and be verbally abused by Edsel".[7] Although he came across as genuinely rude, most locals seemed to agree that it was an act, his style was self-conscious and his role at the restaurant was not just to serve food but also to be a resident "entertainer" and "madman", with one longtime patron recalling him as "[not actually] rude. He was actually certifiably crazy. He didn't act that strange to locals, but the tourists got to him after a while."[7]
Legacy
[edit]
Fong was a regular recurring character in Armistead Maupin's series of Tales of the City novels, and was played by Arsenio 'Sonny' Trinidad in the 1993 Channel 4 miniseries.[8] Fong had a cameo in the 1981 Chuck Norris film An Eye for an Eye.[9] Robin Williams referred to Fong in his 1997 eulogy of Herb Caen: "'Oops, she (Pamela Harriman) is missing our table, going right to God's.' I hope they have a waiter like Edsel Ford Fong who goes, 'No water here. Only wine!'"[10] A series of club-level bistros at Oracle Park are named "Ford Fong's" in his honor.[11][12] He is also memorialized by a portrait on "Gold Mountain", a mural depicting Chinese contributions to American history on Romolo Place in North Beach, a few blocks from the restaurant.[13] He is spoken of by Jerry Kamstra in his memoir of pre-hippie San Francisco, The Frisco Kid.
Fong's daughter, also a waiter at Sam Wo, picked up the mantle after his death. For decades, she was rude and irascible with customers—until the closure of Sam Wo, still listed in one tourist guidebook as being where Fong practiced a "wicked sarcasm [that] took on aspects of performance art".[14] The restaurant announced its closure in April 2012, citing the age of the building and kitchen as contributing factors. Sam Wo reopened in 2015 at a new location on Clay Street.[15]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ "Sam Wo's". home & abroad. Archived from the original on July 12, 2011. Retrieved September 12, 2007.
- ^ Guest Joe Franko (June 14, 2002). "Sam Wo". Fud Court. Retrieved September 12, 2007.
- ^ Lillie F. (May 30, 2008). "Sam Wo Restaurant (review)". www.yelp.com. Retrieved October 15, 2008.
- ^ "San Francisco Information". Portola San Francisco. Retrieved September 12, 2007. [permanent dead link]
- ^ a b Eric Ehrmann (1996). "Curry Noodle Time:The Sam Woh Experience". Archived from the original on August 4, 2009. Retrieved September 12, 2007.
But it was a despotic head waiter known as Edsel Ford Fong that made SAM WOH such a formidable Babylon-by-the-Bay institution. Edsel, big for an oriental chap at 6' 200 lbs. in his whitewall crew cut, long apron and omnipresent game-face scowl. If you walked in at prime time and didn't know Edsel you were in for some first-class abuse taking. He was the Pol Pot of noodledom and when it came to insults, he took no prisoners.
- ^ Nina Wu (2007). "San Francisco Restaurant and Dining Guide". Coast News. Retrieved September 12, 2007.
- ^ a b Romney, Lee (April 21, 2012). "San Francisco bids farewell to beloved Sam Wo Restaurant". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved September 17, 2017.
- ^ "Tales of the City". IMDB. Retrieved September 12, 2009.
- ^ Edsel Ford Fung in An Eye for an Eye on YouTube
- ^ "Robin Williams". San Francisco Chronicle. February 8, 1997. Retrieved September 12, 2007.
Oops, she's missing our table, going right to God's. I hope they have a waiter like Edsel Ford Fong who goes, No water here. Only wine!
- ^ Rick DelVecchio (April 11, 2000). "There Are Lots of Things to Do ... Even If You Don't Watch the Game". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved September 12, 2007.
- ^ "Access Privileges". San Francisco Giants. Archived from the original on January 28, 2007. Retrieved September 12, 2007.
- ^ Jim Herron Zamora (September 12, 2007). "San Francisco mural depicting 9/11 flight attendant scarred by taggers". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved September 12, 2007.
- ^ John Flinn (October 12, 2003). "Tourist at home: Why not enjoy here what others travel the world to find?". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved September 12, 2007.
- ^ Paolo Lucchesi (April 19, 2012). "Chinatown institution Sam Wo is closing this weekend". Inside Scoop SF. Retrieved April 19, 2012.
External links
[edit]- account of meeting Edsel Ford Fong by Charles Bukowski (archived)
- Crockett, Zachary (May 26, 2014). "The Worst Waiter in History". priceonomics.com. Retrieved May 27, 2014.