Chinese Restaurant Mysteries Part III - Ace Burgers

Since it's been almost exactly 10 years since I've written up a Chinese restaurant mystery dealing with a puzzling Chinese restaurant event the time is ripe for another such article which just solved itself.   One year ago, Tianjin Feng Wei opened up on Valley Blvd. in Alhambra in the depths of the pandemic, one of  perhaps just a handful of new Chinese restaurants that opened up in the San Gabriel Valley after the pandemic hit late last winter.   Any new Chinese restaurant opening at that time was puzzling, and Tianjin Feng Wei's opening was doubly puzzling because they opened up in an abandoned restaurant storefront that had been vacant for five years, and known as a graveyard for Chinese restaurants with 10 different Chinese restaurant occupants over the years.  

As it turned out, Tianjin Feng Wei was a gem.  Their Tianjin style pork buns were fantastic and raved about by online commentators.  Their beef bing was excellent, not as good as the version at Beijing Pie House, but when Beijing Pie House failed to survive the pandemic Tianjin Feng Wei became a go-to source for beef pies for many people.  And a number of their other dishes were excellent too.  But then suddenly this past March there was a notice that the restaurant would be temporarily closed for a week.  Fine, it's not unusual for small restaurants to go on vacation.   But upon reopening a week later, while the building signage still said Tianjin Feng Wei, the sign in the window and the menu now said Ace Burgers!  

Of course Chinese restaurants get sold all the time, quite often with a new name and a new style of cooking.  But in this case the quick flip of a popular new restaurant was unusual, as was the speed in opening the new style restaurant.  The latter was quickly explained by the fact that the restaurant was not sold, but merely rebranded by the owner with an entirely different menu.   So the change in cuisine could just be a business decision that the new menu would be more successful than the old one, though that didn't seem to be probable, since they had the only Tianjin pork buns in town.  And adding to the puzzle was the fact that Ace Burgers did not sell burgers.  Rather, the new menu consisted of chicken sandwiches and fried chicken.

Fortunately all this has just been explained by social media stars the Fung Bros in their new video on latest food trends in the San Gabriel Valley, and who once were so nice to refer to me as the "OG Chinese foodie" (whatever that means.)   As it turns out, McDonald's in China has created a spicy chicken sandwich which is the rage of not only China, but all throughout East Asia.  Likewise, KFC has created a similar product with their spicy chicken wings.  Consequently, Ace Burgers has a menu that strives to duplicate the popular chicken dishes served by McDonald's and KFC in China.  And why the name Ace Burgers if they don't serve burgers?  Because in China, chicken sandwiches are known as chicken burgers.  And now the flip to Ace Burgers makes perfect sense.