The President and the Malaysian immigrant behind her favorite steakhouse in San Francisco
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA?THE last time I interviewed her, President Macapagal-Arroyo had a lomi for an afternoon merienda. She is known to be abstemious. Which is why I was rather surprised when I stumbled on proof that she must be a steak lover, or at least she knows her steak. For when she is in the San Francisco Bay Area, she makes it a point to drop by Broadway Prime, a snug, Old World-style diner in downtown Burlingame, a five-minute drive off the 101 South Freeway from the San Francisco International Airport.

In fact, according to its proprietor, Hong Tan, 47, Ms Arroyo was scheduled to drop by on a layover on her way home from her last visit to the White House. She had to cancel after learning of the death of a predecessor-turned-nemesis, Corazon Aquino, whose wake she hustled to upon debarking at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.

As proof that his steakhouse is, indeed, a presidential favorite, he has a picture of himself beside Ms Arroyo on the bulletin board at the diner?s entrance.

For countless Bay Area residents, the Arroyo endorsement is needless; in fact, Hong may be oblivious to the fact that many of his Filipino customers find Philippine politics (and this photo) repulsive. It is apparently not enough to keep them away from the succulent, well-aged, medium-cooked meat that has been Broadway Prime?s signature.

Recession favorite

Anyone who frequents downtown Burlingame at dinnertime would attest to the restaurant?s popularity. Particularly during this recession when many of its neighboring establishments are seen wanting for customers, Broadway Prime almost always has a crowd filling its 150 seats.

Hong says his customers consume some 2,000 pounds?a ton!?of America?s prime-cut meat a week. This is why three years ago, he got himself his own meat locker so he can age his beef to his specifications.

Yes, they come for the corn-fed meat?generous portions of either prime rib or New York cut, with bottomless helpings of cream of corn and spinach, cowboy potatoes and for a nasty twist, horseradish guaranteed to make you snort like, well, a stallion in heat.

But they also come for Hong himself, a gregarious Penang-born Malaysian with the severely cropped hair of a Marine recruit and an enthusiasm as exuberant as the dishes and drinks he serves.

But it was an enterprise with a rocky start, and Hong still winces at the thought of what if it all had gone south.

Hong was just barely out of his teens when he and his family, on a petition from an uncle who was already in the US, came to America.

?Penang wasn?t a bad place,? he recalls, ?but we heard of the opportunities here.?

?I didn?t speak a word of English,? he says. ?Nobody would hire me.? But he did find work, mostly menial in restaurants and hotels.

?I would work two, three jobs,? he recounts. ?One time I had to sleep under a table so I wouldn?t be late for work. I told one of the waiters who was a friend, ?Look, I will take a nap under table 35. Wake me up when my shift comes up.? And when my time came, he would peek under the tablecloth and wake me up.?

He said he worked seven days a week??no days off??for 14 years, but he didn?t just work his way up the food chain; he studiously learned the business because, he said, ?all my life, even when I was still a kid in Penang, I dreamed of having my own restaurant.?

Going on his own

As the 20th century wrapped up, Hong had saved enough and decided to put up his own enterprise, a steak house, modeled on a restaurant he had worked for.

That was when his troubles began. Simply put, the restaurant sued him for copying. Litigation took about two years, but the case was eventually settled.

Getting rid of the lawsuit was one thing; bringing in customers was quite another. ?I was scared,? he laughed as he ran his hand over his closely cropped scalp.

But when he opened on a summer evening in 2001, his reason for being afraid was not failure to bring in customers; his nightmare was that there were too many of them.

?Man, they were standing on the sidewalk waiting for two hours,? he recalled. ?Worse, many of them were my friends. They would not talk to me for years.?

But things have settled down since. Most of his customers are regulars. On the night of our interview, a couple of women with a young girl about six or seven years old, got a table beside ours. Hong came up to them, said, ?Hi!? in his uniquely convivial way, and then addressed the girl directly, ?I will show you something.? Then he ran off and moments later was back with a snapshot. ?You remember who this is??

It was a picture of the same group but several years earlier in a different table, and the girl was still almost a toddler.

?You must make your customers feel important,? Hong says, reiterating what seems to be a rudimentary customer service rule.

The difference, however, is how Hong makes his clients feel important.

Here in the States, a fine restaurant would not hesitate to take a course back to the kitchen if a customer does not like it and offer another one at no extra cost. Hong is known to take it up another notch. He would not just offer a free meal at another time, but throw in a fine bottle of wine just to make sure the customer is not just appeased but pleased.

Several months ago, he says he got a call from a Filipino group working in one of the major health facilities here. The caller said they?d heard about Broadway Prime and wanted to know how much it would cost to hold a party.

He told her the cost, at which she balked; too much, she said. Okay, Hong tells her, how much can you afford? She tells him what seems to be a real bargain. He tells her, ?Let?s do it.?

?Are you kidding?? she asked, surprised.

?No, I?m not,? he says. ?And to prove to you that I?m serious, I?ll throw in the wine.?

Hong explains his philosophy. ?They may not come back tomorrow, or the next week. But I?m sure they would come maybe next year and even years from now. The important thing for me,? he says, ?is that they will remember how well they were treated here.?

Come to think of it, if GMA and her crew just had dinner here on her last US visit, their bill would have amounted to about a few hundred bucks (a set prime rib dinner is about $40).

Lito Gutierrez is editor of Asian Dragon Magazine.