XiaoLia s is closing

I hate it when something closes without notifying me first. I took off at lunch just to get out of the office a little bit and I was returning from the Bank and decided to head west of the office to check out the coffee shop when I zipped past Xiao Li’s and there was a huge sign in the window “Item Sale”.

Xiao Li is a high end Asian ( Chinese) restaurant, which has occupied the North East bottom corner of the crane building for past 10 years or so. Evening prices are way high but the Lunch menu is sort of affordable. Xiao Li is one of those establishments, which has the look of a place where everyone wants to be. In the summer the restaurant exudes a cool glow with people in their summer clothes drifting in and out look cool. In the winter the windows exuded a warm glow in the dark early evening as folks started their weekends and holiday celebrations right after work. Folks wrapped in fur fortune cookies making the scene. In the local City Weekly Xiao Li has received the 'Salt Lake City's Best Chinese Restaurant 1997, 1998 & 1999' The place must have been good. I never went . I always thought I had time. Xiao Li had the look as if it would be on that corner for ever. But, I found out today there are having the Item Sale today from 10:00 to 1:00 pm! Who has a three hour Item Sale AKA Tag Sale AKA Liquidation Sale?

I never got to the coffee shop needless to say. I zipped round the corner of the building and up the ramp on the other side. I glanced at my watch as I ended the restaurant and found there was still 20 minutes left to the sale! There was still quite a bit of merchandise like tables, chairs, rice steamers and great pieces of Chinese art for under a $100.00. Bundles of spoons, forks and hand made tea mugs. So much stuff. They were even selling cases of wine, food warmers, sterno powered and electric. I could have gone crazy spending if I had any where to store the stuff. The clock on the wall indicated five minutes of 1:00 and the Chinese fellow who had been on his cell phone the entire time I had been in the restaurant looked like he was late for a Toastmasters meeting. I grabbed a couple of tea pots. I don’t know why. It seemed like the right thing to do. I am always fascinated when I order green tea and my tea comes in these little, pots with the bags hanging over the side. The pots were fifty cents each. How can you go wrong with a price like that?

In the back of the main room of the restaurant was what looked to be an Asian family dressed in black sitting round one of those huge round table you always see in these kind of restaurants. In the center of the table was a giant sack from Mc Donald’s the family obviously had decided to have their last meal in the joint and the meal was “Ethnic”. They talked in a hush and seemed to be distraught. The group Looked like the family of the deceased at a viewing. “Aunt Ling” saw that I was ready to purchase my treasure and came over to the cash register,
also for sale.

I offered my condolences as I dug round my back pack for my wallet. I said I was sorry that they didn’t make it. I also said I was surprised because they always seemed to be doing so well. They even had “Best in Salt Lake” three or four years running. I knew this to be true because the plates with the year of each award written on it were for sale over on the far table. “Aunt Ling’s” light up saying, “That’s OK. This is still going to be a restaurant” She said like she had just won the jackpot in Wendover, like she had cooked her last egg roll and planned to eat at Micky D’s for the rest of her natural life. “Next week this be Vietnamese place.