For Cantonese-born Hoover Zhu, owning a restaurant was his “American Dream.” That became a reality in 2008 when the University of Arizona alum purchased Old Peking, the half-century-old eatery in midtown Tucson.

Business at the noticeable pink stop on East Speedway near Tucson Boulevard has remained steady since. That was until late January when Zhu noticed a drop in customers during the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show, typically one of the restaurant’s busiest times of the year. Other regulars disappeared, telling him they were scared to go outside to eat.

A second big hit for Zhu came when Tucson — and later Pima County and the state — moved to limit restaurants like his to just takeout service in an attempt to curb the spread of the coronavirus. He ultimately decided to close down last week and wait out the virus at the urging of his staff.

“For the short-term, it’s OK, but not for a long time,” Zhu said last week, sitting at a round dining table in the middle of the vacant restaurant. “Business is not important. Health is more important.”

For months, Chinese restaurants across the country were reporting big drops in customers after some Americans linked the virus — which originated in Wuhan, China — to Asian businesses here that had no ties to China or its coronavirus outbreak.

That’s somewhat been the case in Tucson, where business owners have experienced the same unexpected drops in revenue, but without the same sentiments that have prompted the FBI to issue a warning about potential incidents against Asian Americans as the crisis continues to grow.