Chinese eatery hopes petition will prevent closure

"Ninety-three! Fifty-four! Fifty-six!" Priscilla Yang shouts from behind the counter at Chinese Star, a popular family-owned fast-food restaurant on the University of Houston campus.

Students jump up from their tables to collect platters of spicy Hunan bean curd, three-ingredient kung pao and Mongolian beef－three of the hodge-podge of inexpensively priced dishes on offer.

But Yang, a first-generation immigrant to the United States from Taiwan, may be giving her voice a rest after almost 27 years at the restaurant. The university announced last fall that Chinese Star's lease in the converted Pizza Hut restaurant will not be renewed.

A last-ditch campaign to save the popular eatery includes an online petition started by Mohammed Hamid that has so far generated 2,009 signatures. The Yang family has a meeting this week with university officials, who plan to shut the restaurant on Dec 17, renovate the space for a new food service tenant that can start serving the campus next fall.

"I never even went to UH but I've been here multiple times," one fan writes in an online review on Yelp, "just for the insane value of what you get".

The restaurant is primarily a favorite of students, and legions of them don't want to see it go. It continues to draw long lines at lunchtime for its Americanized array of Chinese fare and bubble teas.

"It's a spot where I have a lot of memories with friends," Andre Abelara tells local TV station KHOU.

Abelara has been dining there every week for the last four years.

"Panda Express just doesn't really cut it," he says.

Fans say Yang has been serving the students like they were her own family for nearly three decades. She doesn't want to move, and the Houston Chronicle and four local television stations have been in the restaurant recently to report on the drive to save it.

"I know a lot of people are helping me. I told them if they change their mind, anytime, I will like to stay," says Yang, who owns the restaurant with her husband.

UH spokesperson Richard Zagrzecki told media that the university is looking for restaurants that "more closely align with its food service model and better meet the expectations of the ever-expanding and diverse customer base".

"It's not fancy by any means," says Michael Chen, a regular for three years. "But the portions are big, the staff is very friendly, and I'm on the beer hall-of-fame wall. It's a very endearing part of campus life."