FALLS CHURCH, Virginia -- Ten miles southwest of the White House, in a suburban strip center, George H.W. Bush often dined on duck and quietly helped put a Chinese restaurant on the culinary map.
“Not only was he a great president, but also, I lost a good friend,” said George Tsui, owner or Peking Gourmet Inn.
He was a good friend and a loyal customer, Tsui said of Bush.
Just take a look around at the dozens of framed pictures on the walls. Many are of Bush and his family over the years. Bush’s son Marvin first introduced him to this place in 1985. “I just wanted you to know that the food was excellent and your sons, Robert and George, and all the rest of the people there couldn’t have been more accommodating,” wrote Vice President Bush to Tsui’s father and restaurant founder in September 1985 after his first meal here.
“The duck was especially fantastic,” Bush added in that typed letter now framed at the restaurant.
George Bush dined here more than 100 times. Many of his visits forever captured in those framed pictures that now hang on the walls.
Mei Wang remembers how nervous she used to become while serving him. “Yeah, my voice was shaking. Very nervous,” she said. Wang, though, complimented Bush for making her feel at ease.
Tsui remembers Bush as gracious, gentle, and for what the president did when Tsui’s own dad died. “My telephone rings and President Bush is on the phone offering his condolences to me. He stayed on the phone with me for 15-minutes talking about life and death. That moment I will remember forever,” Tsui said.
Secret Service agents would often have Bush enter the restaurant through the back door, Tsui recalled. Customers often applauded when he walked into the dining room.
One night, Tsui recalled, Bush learned that a couple got engaged there just before he arrived. Upon finding out, President Bush asked his staff to return to the limousine to get a president memento as a gift to the man and woman dining near him.
Tsui said that was indicative of the person he was.