The Jade Fountain in Duluth Minnesota, Serving Chinese Food for Decades

Friday evening, the weeks work is done. Tonight lets take a break from cooking supper for a change and stop on the way home. Funny how human nature seems to set patterns, with restaurant opportunities from on end of the city to the other we always seem to rotate between 3, maybe 4 places at the most. We've accepted routine rather then explore some new places.

Tonight we did something different, we went to a new - old place. To explain, the Jade Fountain has been located on Central Ave. in West Duluth since way back into the 70's. While in my youth it was visited on an occasional basis as it was located on the far side of the city away from our usual path. That was 30 yrs ago.

West Duluth is the working man's end of town. No fancy little specialty shops or classy eateries. Catering to tourists is the farthest thing from their minds. This area is for the locals. A number of bars, some fast food places, and maybe a video rental place next to the gas station. The restaurants in the area usually are attached to a bar, and the food is hot and filling.

The Jade Fountain, with it's Chinese Red facade complete with about half the red neon tubes that highlight the awning still working, is placed between a number of other nondiscript brick buildings that line the block. If you were unaware that the business had been around for so long you might just drive by without a second thought. Even as we parked directly in front of the building we wondered what we were getting into.

We had already walked out of one Chinese place located a mile away in a stripmall. Upon entering the so called menu was plastered as a small group of unappealing posters above what I think was the ordering counter. In that place the staff made no attempt to greet us, or explain how their operation functioned. As the prices on the posters were much higher then what we had been accustomed to we just got up and left.

Entering the Red door of the Jade Fountain we felt as if we were going back in time. With lowered lighting, the darkness immediately revealed a fully stocked bar on one side of the building. We were immediately and warmly greeted by a hostess who directed us to a booth secluded away from the bar. Our apprehension disappeared quickly as a polite waitor of Chinese decent greeted us, explained the menu and took our order.

Within a minute or two he returned with bowls of piping hot Chicken and Rice soup stating it was part of the meal. In a little bit he returned with our appetizer, an order of chicken wings with oyster sauce. To our surprise the chicken wings were huge, the two piece order by itself would have been a reasonable meal, but we were just getting started.

in short order the main course arrived. Mine was shrimp chow mein with a side of egg foo young, my wife had chicken chow mein and sweet and sour chicken. The quantity was amazing, after already having a hearty bowl of soup and some crispy delicious chicken wings, we knew there would be take home containers in our future. We each managed to finish only about a third of our main course and the boxed leftovers became lunch the following day.

Lately we have experienced Chinese food that was either very greasy, or in another place barely luke warm. The Jade Fountain was head and shoulders above those we have been patronizing for the past few years. There food was piping hot, with very fresh and crisp vegetables. The fried rice that accompanied the main course for all dinners was fantastic. So many places don't put much effort into their fried rice with only one or two added ingredients. The Jade Fountain has scrambled egg, fine sliced green onions, meat, and their fried rice is flavored to perfection.

We have found a new home in the old Jade Fountain in West Duluth. The secret to their success is knowing who their market is. Working men, and women have been eating there for about 40 years. With their great food, excellent service and reasonable prices I'm confident they'll be around for many decades to come.