West Lake Restaurant

The West Lake Restaurant was the first Chinese restaurant in Westport, CT and as well as the first Chinese restaurant in Fairfield County. It opened in 1950 as a Chinese-American restaurant, so people who did not eat Chinese food could order steak and potato with salad, and dine with their Chinese-food eating friends. The restaurant owners, Eddie and Frances Lee, chose the picturesque location for its proximity to the Saugatuck River. When West Lake first opened, there was a dock ramp from the back door straight down

to the river. The West Lake menu was Cantonese style, probably too far ahead of its time. It served very fancy Cantonese dishes like Lobster Cantonese, as well as fusion style style dishes like Steak Kew (one-inch cubes of sirloin steak stir fried in a sautee of plum sauce with peas on their pods for the American clientele). When the cheaper and more common Chop Suey and Fried Rice style competitors opened, many patrons went to them, much to the West Lake owners’ chagrin.

Westport was changing from a mix of artists, artisans and wealthy country-home elite to a bedroom community for upwardly mobile Manhattan. The typical commuters were Madison Avenue ad execs, accountants, lawyers and stock brokers. They were drawn by the beaches, especially Compo and Sherwood Island, and the pretty water-color-like landscapes that were natural to Westport. Westport had curbside charm

and appeal, and still does. Commuters also took advantage of the long but doable 60 minute commute to Midtown, on either the Connecticut Turnpike via the New York Thruway, the Merritt Parkway, or the New Haven line trains to and from Grand Central Station.

West Lake customers were mostly regulars with their own favorite waitress or waiters. They’d come every week or so. West Lake’s owner, Eddie Lee, knew hundreds of his clients by name, and their children’s names and where their children went to school.

He loved talking with them about their families. This care centered the West Lake Restaurant as a vital place in the Westport community.