INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — A longtime favorite Chinese eatery will close its doors next month after 30 years of service, the owners said Tuesday.
The Szechuan Palace Chinese Restaurant Lounge will officially close June 15, said owners Sue Fen Liang, 67, and John Liang, 71. The Vero Beach husband and wife plan to retire when the eatery – serving fried rice, egg foo young, chicken and more – closes for good.
“The restaurant business is tough,” Sue Fen Liang said. “We have to be here more than 16 hours a day.”
The property landlord sold the building to the Florida Department of Transportation because of the widening of 43rd Avenue, said John Liang and Deputy County Attorney Bill Debraal. The road expansion, which will take up to two years to complete, will begin this summer, Debraal said.
The widening of 43rd Avenue will cause the restaurant to lose some parking spaces, Debraal said. Debraal said the county and DOT will take a parcel of land south of the restaurant and add it to the property for extra parking.
The DOT will then put the property up for sale, Debraal said. The listing price and date were not immediately available.
The Liangs said they decided to not relocate the eatery, but instead moved ahead with plans to go into retirement. The eatery is located at 1965 43rd Avenue.
Sue Fen Liang made the restaurant closing announcement in a Saturday Facebook post.
“Thank you to everyone for supporting us since we first opened in 1989,” Sue Fen Liang wrote in the post. “Without you folks, we wouldn’t have gotten this far.”
Several people left tributes on Facebook, saying they will miss the eatery as well as the Liangs. For John Liang, the feeling was mutual.
“We have lots of memories here,” John Liang said.