Old-time bakery-restaurant to shutter Chinatown doors

You have been given a two-week reprieve. You might have had only had seven more days to try a longtime Chinatown eatery, as Ruby Restaurant & Bakery at 119 N. Hotel St. was planning to close Thursday after about 32 years of operation. However, the building’s landlord asked owner Lak Kar "Laker" Ho to stay open through March 15.

Rising lease rent caused Laker and his wife, Helen, to decide to close and make way for a new operation focused on Filipino food.

Also, parking in Chinatown is notoriously challenging. "I feel so sorry for my customers," Ho said. "I need a place with parking," which is what he and Helen will look for as they scout for new locations.

Before that, however, once the restaurant closing tasks are completed, the Hos will take a break.

They have run the popular bakery and restaurant, which is open daily, for 21 years, after taking over from the second of three owners.

He was a cook at the old Lotus Moon restaurant in the Sheraton Princess Kaiu­lani Hotel before taking over Ruby’s.

"He had a restaurant in Hong Kong," Helen said, before he came to Hawaii in 1986.

"Ruby’s has a long history," he said.

They kept the name from the founding Fung family, as well as the menu, but added items and altered recipes to remove trans fats and some of the sugar from the pastries, and to make the savory dishes more healthful.

"I’m here all day. I eat here," Laker said, and "our customers are like family," so he wants to provide healthy foods.

The stream of rolling cart-pulling or pushing customers of all ages was steady Tuesday morning as they came by to pick up Ruby’s popular light, airy and not-too-sweet Hong Kong buns ($1.10), pineapple buns ($1.15), flaky and creamy custard tarts ($1.10) and more.

A local woman brought in a friend visiting from Italy to enjoy some of the restaurant’s offerings.

It serves mostly Hong Kong-style fare, though Szechuan and other Chinese regional cuisines are offered as well.

Its most popular dishes are the garlicky and somewhat spicy Pepper Salt prawns ($9.50) and mild and delicate Sea Bass and Deep-Fried Tofu in Casserole ($9.50), Laker said.

The two dishes are an infinitesimal fraction of the dozens and dozens of choices listed on the walls and in printed menus.

Daily specials range from $6.95 for Monday’s chicken fried noodle with black bean or pepper salt pork, to $7.50 for Thursday’s seafood fried noodle.

Ruby’s is open from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. (or maybe 6:30) daily, with seating for up to 60 patrons.

In addition to daily pastry baking, Ruby’s bakes cakes for special occasions, as depicted in a small photo album that spans years and styles of cakes, including multitiered wedding cakes stacked vertically and decorated with flowers; cakes on risers spread out across a table spanning multiple levels; and one especially stunning birthday cake with white frosting bearing bold, red Chinese characters and elaborate decoration.

Ho speaks humbly and appreciatively of customers who have grown up with his cakes, ordering them for their sweethearts, then for their weddings, baby showers, birthdays and anniversaries and now their children’s birthdays.

He prefers a week’s notice for orders but can handle orders with a little less lead time.

Ho bakes "from my heart," he said. "I love to see families stick together," he said.

"Baking, you have to get up early," he noted, to prepare ingredients, give dough time to proof, and more.

"I can be on my feet 12 or 14 hours," but seeing joyful reactions to the custom-ordered cakes he’s baked, or the look of reverie on the face of a customer enjoying one of his pastries or savory dishes, "that’s what has made me stay here," he said.

And stay he will, for your dining pleasure, for the next three weeks.