Flashback Friday at Chef Shangri-La
Dinner with a heavy dose of nostalgia in the Chicago suburbs
During a recent Chinese American Museum visit I watched a lively interview with Dr. Lisa (Fong) Abrams and learned about the wonders of her family’s Chef Shangri-La: Elvis impersonators, family-style Cantonese fare and the signature Dr. Fong cocktail.
As someone who prides herself on familiarity with Chicagoland’s retro restaurants and bars, I was embarrassed that this 48 year old paragon of island kitsch wasn’t on my radar. I needed to rectify this immediately.
I knew there was no point setting foot inside “the Chef” on a weeknight because the weekend live shows are key to the experience. The February calendar boasted four different Elvises, hula dancers, Rod Stewart and Tina Turner impersonators, a “Chicks with Picks” night and more.
I had my heart set on the Whitney Houston tribute so we corralled our adventure-loving friends Eric and Anna and piled into our Delorean time machine, er Volvo, and headed west. The further we drove, the further back in time we traveled, until we arrived at the village of North Riverside.
This 1.64 square mile-spot of land sandwiched between Berwyn and Riverside is a celebration of all things eighties. Its preeminent attraction, North Riverside Park Mall, counts JCPenney, Aéropostale, TCBY and Gloria Jean’s Coffees among its tenants; its most notable resident was the bull terrier who portrayed Bud Light spokes-dog Spuds MacKenzie.
The low-slung, windowless brick building with a shingled Mansard roof that houses Chef Shangri-La (7930 26th St., North Riverside, IL) is pure 1970s. Its exterior reminded me of the strip mall “professional building” that housed my childhood doctor’s office.
We pushed open the doors and entered into a world of wall-to-wall rattan. Lined with posters of regular acts such as Neil Diamond and Frank Sinatra, it felt like stepping into a Waikiki nightclub during the swinging seventies.
Turning the corner into the inexplicably bright dining room, we ping-ponged forward in time to 1985, as Whitney belted out “Saving All My Love for You.”
Eric, a hardcore drummer who had expressed distaste for Houston’s catalog during the car ride, eagerly claimed the chair with its back to the entertainment, but there was no escaping the aural assault.
The decibel level was so deafening that we resorted to pantomime as our primary means of communication; Anna, who often tags along to Eric’s punk shows, plucked a pair of bright-orange foam bullets from her purse and plugged her ears.
It was 7:10pm and the Chef was crackling with energy. Ten ladies slurping down monumentally-sized mai tais (the cocktail list’s booziest drinks, according to our server), hooped and hollered as Whitney launched into the anthem “I’m Every Woman.”
We got into the groove with a round of Dr. Fong’s. The recipe is a closely-guarded family secret, but it reminded me of a rum-spiked version of my favorite artificial juice blend from the eighties, Five Alive.
We snuck in a brief conversation about our order during a song break while our diva-cum-emcee called out Whitney-themed trivia.
The menu is expansive, combining Cantonese classics, sushi, Southeast Asian cuisine, Peruvian dishes and Pacific Islander foods, but seeing as It was 1980s nostalgia that brought us in, we opted for items that recalled the AmeriChinese restaurants of our youth.
We started off with a Pu Pu Platter, served on a compartmentalized wood tray. Chef Shangri-La knows its way around a deep-fryer: the crab rangoon, egg rolls and jumbo fried shrimp (with a cake batter-like breading) were all standouts.
We loved the teriyaki beef skewers, which were delicately-seasoned and exceedingly tender. The centerpiece char siu was unlike any I’ve experienced, as if pork shoulder had been stewed in a liquefied Jolly Rancher—syrupy and delicious.
We also ordered pan-fried potstickers. As someone who used to squeeze the meat filling onto my Dad’s plate so I could eat my way through all of the wrappers, these doughy dumplings were top-notch.
One Dr. Fong in, I decided to join the trivia contest. Frankly, I can’t remember what I was asked and answered because when I went up to claim my prize (a lotto scratcher) I mistakenly mentioned my name was Whitney. Our host thrust the mic into my hands and told me to sing.
Before a roomful of exuberant Whitney fans I managed to bust out a bar of “So Emotional.” Slightly flushed yet buoyed by the round of applause, I sat down and immediately ordered myself a second cocktail—an ultra-sweet piña colada.
Our entrees emerged from the kitchen on a utility bus cart, presumably because the massive plates are too heavy for servers to hand carry.
The food took a backseat to the entertainment as Whitney started performing up-tempo hits and ladies hit the dance floor, but here are the liner notes for our three dishes: sweet (sesame chicken), sweeter (Hawaiian island fried rice) and sweetest (moo shu chicken).
I was on a full-fledged sugar high so once I heard the first few chords of “I Wanna Dance with Somebody” I joined the raucous revelry. All smiles and groovy moves, the estrogen-forward scene resembled that of a women’s empowerment conference after party.
Once Whitney transitioned to the ballads, I chatted up my dance floor friend Mary Ellen who came to Chef Shangri-La with a group of nurse colleagues. She told me she had driven-by countless times over the past 45 years but never bothered to stop because her family already had its go-to Chinese spot, Elmwood Park’s North Star. Little did Mary Ellen realize what she had been missing.
Suddenly a candle-lit cake emerged from the kitchen and without skipping a beat, Whitney led the dining room in a heartfelt rendition of Happy Birthday. The honoree was sixty years-young Rose, who broke into joyful tears during the serenade.
Merriam Webster defines Shangri-La as “a remote beautiful imaginary place where life approaches perfection: utopia.” For Rose, the other mai tai-fueled women in her group and many of us at the Chef that Friday evening, the nostalgia-heavy experience was just that.
Photos by Jared Wheeler
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WHITNEY!! I used to live in the apartments next door to the Chef 😆😆 (I grew up in Lagrange Park). Hope you are well! Glad I found you. xo Betsy
What fun WHITNEY! I knew we chose that name for a good reason!