Ha's Turn to Tears

Hey kids! Its been a while, so let me start with a complete non-sequiter. I just paid $6 for a bowl of soup from some sandwich/soup joint down the street from the office. Quite a price to pay for a bowl of flavored water, but to somewhat quote Vinnie Vega from Pulp Fiction, “I’m not sure it’s worth $6, but it’s a damn good bowl of soup.” It’s Mexican Chicken Tortilla in case you were curious. OK. Back to the post…

This entry may actually be one of the more serious posts I’ve written.

At this point in life, I have come to realize there are only a few things I can actually rely on no matter what. For me, its Natalia, my family, my SF/LA/NY friends, and that’s about it. (On the negative side, I can also count on UCLA football disappointing me, the broads from The View annoying me, the cost of an SF home to always be out of my price range— but I digress.)

There was one other aspect of my fairly simple life that I have relied on for several years, but alas cannot count on it any longer. The object to which I am referring is actually an eatery. Perhaps my favorite eatery. An eatery that I have enjoyed since the late 1980’s. It is with great despair that I announce that Ha’s Chinese Restaurant located on 25th Ave. and Irving Street in the Sunset district of San Francisco is no longer in business.

Not quite the way I wanted to kick off 2008.

My love affair with Ha’s began when I started working at Chan’s Baseball Card shop in 1988. The guys at the shop were already quite fond of Ha’s when I was hired. For the 3 years I worked there, I would say that we ordered Ha’s for delivery at least twice a week. (Ha’s split time with Judah Café, a great greasy spoon down the street that knew us all by name. Unfortunately, Judah Café has also gone the way of the dinosaur.)

We all had our favorites. Ross would get kung pao beef with no peanuts, James would enjoy shrimp in black bean sauce, Khang was a fan of mongolian beef, and I absolutely adored their garlic sauce chicken wings (GCW). I have probably eaten thousands of Ha’s wings in my lifetime and my adoration of their wings was widely known. My family knew I loved them and a few years back, my buddy James actually gave me an order of GCW for X-Mas when he bought everyone their favorite things. Some received beers, bottles of Jameson, or Cokes, me….the wings. In an attempt at transparency, let the record show I also loved their beef chow fun, walnut prawns, green onion pancakes, and kung pao beef too.

When I left SF the first time for college, (and on every subsequent trip since), my return visits to SF were not complete unless I had an order of Ha’s. Even on my most recent trips to China, when I was sick of Chinese food by the time I left Beijing, I ordered Ha’s as one of my first meals. Ha’s was more than delicious sustenance. Ha’s was a sign of home. Located in my old neighborhood, chomping into their food let me know that I was home safely and everything was ok in the world. My friends and I ordered Ha’s for every fantasy baseball draft I ever participated in. I’ve spent many a lazy weekend watching movies or sports while eating Ha’s. Now my only real version of comfort food is gone.

I knew something was amiss when I gave them a call for a delivery last Sunday night. Busy signal all night long. Maybe they were closed for an extended holiday I thought, so I grabbed some eats elsewhere. I had an inkling at the time that maybe there was something more going on, but I quickly squashed this idea.

Then, Monday night at approximately 9:30pm, James gave me a call and just said, “unbelievable” when I picked up. We have been friends for over 25 years at this point so maybe it was just my familiarity with the tone of his voice that I immediately knew Ha’s was no more. James said he might give up Chinese food altogether and become a sushi connoisseur, but that was a joke…I think.

It might be fitting that my debut at Ha’s coincided with my injection into the absolute depths of baseball fandom, and now its closing mirrors the ridiculousness of the baseball dialogue this off-season which has consisted mostly of Mitchell reports, HGH, subpoenas, and steroids. Hardly a whimper in comparison about the Dodgers signing of Andruw Jones, or Billy Beane trading away the nucleus of the A’s for some prospects. It appears that the classic adage, all good things must come to an end, may be true whether in reference to the purity of America’s pastime or local Chinese cuisine.

Ha’s has left a void that may not be easily filled. There are rumors that Ha’s is only moving down the street to a new location, but I remain dubious. Fortunately, I have this forum and you readers to provide me with much-needed support during this difficult time.

(I recently finished reading Anthony Bourdain’s A Cook’s Tour, which may have contributed to the nostalgic remembrance of Ha’s, but I bet even Bourdain would have pangs for GCW if he ever would have had the pleasure.)