A Kingston restaurant that has been a favourite place for doctors, business people, politicians, Queen’s University professors and just about anyone else for more than 50 years in the Limestone City will soon be closing its doors for good.

The last day for the New China Doll Restaurant and Tavern at 563 Princess St. will be Sunday, April 30.

The restaurant has been owned and operated for the past 53 years by Kenny and Joan Chow, with the help of their children: Mai, Jean, Florence and Allan.

The restaurant first opened in 1964 at the La Salle Park Plaza and moved to its current location in 1967. (There have been Chows feeding Kingstonians since 1945, when Kenny’s dad arrived here.)

All three sisters now live in Toronto, but Allan is still in Kingston and helps out his parents every afternoon at 5 p.m. after his shift in IT at Empire Life.

“We’ve decided to retire at the end of this month,” Allan said on behalf of his parents.

As previously written by the Whig-Standard’s former food and entertainment writer Greg Burliuk in 2009, Kenny and Joan Chow have rarely taken a day off in the five decades of running the restaurant. Maybe Christmas Day, but Kenny usually finds himself in the kitchen making Christmas dinner for the family.

A general calculation of how many days they’ve worked adds up to about 19,292, and, for Kenny, who arrives to work around 10 a.m. and doesn’t leave until 11 p.m., that equals 250,796 hours (give or take) working in the kitchen.

“I’ve been here too long, 53 years,” Kenny said on Thursday afternoon.

Allan said it’s time for the couple to put their woks down and their feet up.

“We just thought the time was right.”

The couple plan to travel and spend more time with their grandchildren in Toronto.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do,” Kenny said. “Maybe relax and go to the casino. I want to go to Las Vegas.”

“I’ll enjoy more time with my family,” Joan said.

Over the years, the family has served takeout customers from Brockville, Belleville, Verona and all places in between, in addition to their dine-in customers.

They’ve also built many friendships with their regular patrons.

“I want to thank all my old and new customers,” Kenny said.

“We’ve had a lot of loyal customers and a lot of generations, so that’s pretty neat,” Allan said. “Mom and dad have worked like forever — that’s all we know. For them to be not working is going to be different.”

Joan said “of course” when asked if she will miss the restaurant and its customers.

Working at the China Doll is the only job she’s ever had.

“I just got off the airplane from Hong Kong, go marry my husband and then the next day start working,” she said. “I’ve never gone on a holiday, never taken a day off.”

But she wouldn’t trade the experience for anything.

“I’ve been here 50 years and I’m so lucky coming to Canada and Kingston. It was so nice for my family to grow up here.”

She said she’ll miss her patrons, many of whom have become friends of her family.

“So lucky to have the customers for so long who have been so nice to me. I just want to say thank you to all the generations of customers,” Joan said.

Allan said the local landscape of Chinese food restaurants has changed over the years. There were more than 30 restaurants in Kingston in the 1970s, but that is down to about 15 now that exclusively serve Chinese food.

He said that at one time in the 1960s and ‘70s, there were seven or eight Chinese food restaurants within two blocks of theirs on Princess Street.

Longtime customer and local business person Norman Springer has been a fixture at the restaurant since he was a child.

His family used to go to the restaurant once a week for many years.

“We’ve known them from Day 1 way, way back and they’ve been a hard-working, wonderful family,” Spring said in a telephone interview on Friday afternoon.

“Kenny and Joan have been working there forever and a day. I knew Kenny’s father way back and my late mother and father used to go with us, and we’ve extended it to our kids and grandkids.”

Springer and Kenny would also have friendly banter whenever he showed up for a meal.

“We talked about all kinds of things, tell a few fibs here and there and have a great time,” Springer said.

Springer said it was also a great place to conduct business with clients.

“People come to town and want some good Chinese food. We always went over to Kenny’s and Joan’s,” he said. “I wish there was someone else to take on the tradition, but we wish them well.

“They’ve been a wonderful addition to the Kingston community and they serve wonderful food.”

Regular customer Diane Seymour, dining with her husband, John, and friends Hugh and Shirl Pratt on Thursday, was upset when she was informed by a Whig-Standard reporter that the restaurant was soon to close.

“Joan, you never told us you were closing,” she said as she was about to place her order.

The group has been dining at the restaurant or ordering takeout about once a month for more than 40 years.

“The food is phenomenal,” Seymour said.

She remembers Florence and Allan doing their homework at a vacant table.

“We’ve grown up with their kids; I’ve knitted things for their grandkids.”

Seymour said the food is high quality, judging from the type of patrons the restaurant attracts.

“A lot of the doctors come here and I’ve always felt that if the doctors come, their food must be good.”

Jean Chow, the couple’s second daughter, is now a nurse practitioner in Toronto.

She, along with her siblings, Mai, a dietitian, Florence, who works at Woodbine Race Track in Toronto, and Allan all grew up at the restaurant helping out whenever possible and doing homework there in the evenings.

“It has brought us joy and happiness serving Kingston for 53 years,” Jean said. “We will forever remember the loyalty of our customers and love of our business.”

She also wanted to thank the restaurants suppliers over the years, including Tony Deodato and Sons, Canadian Linen and Findlay Foods.

imacalpine@postmedia.com

Twitter @IanMacAlpine