People are worried about the future of Route 1 landmark Kowloon after co-owner Bobby Wong announced the pan-Asian restaurant will be downsizing its 1,200-seat space to 350 seats in order to add two residential buildings to the lot.
“If you miss [Kowloon], go now — [but] that's not going to save it,” food writer Corby Kummer told Boston Public Radio on Tuesday. “The Wong family … has been eyeing real estate development for years.”
“After the first phase of housing development, the Wong family seems to have gotten approved after years,” he continued. “This is not a quick process. They've gone through many, many housing review boards, then they might raze the whole thing. Who knows if they'll have a nostalgic building in its place?”
While the 1950s-era restaurant may not remain in its current kitschy state, Prince Pizzeria in Lynnfield — formerly known as Prince Spaghetti House — remains open, with its "leaning tower of pizza” adorning the roof. Strip clubs Golden Banana and Cabaret Lounge also remain.
Other Route 1 landmarks haven’t been so lucky, or they have had to shift with the times.
Weylu’s, an opulent Chinese restaurant that opened in 1989, was torn down in 2015 to make way for mixed-use development.
Hilltop Steakhouse was once “ America's largest restaurant, both in number of customers served and sales volume ,” according to the New York Times. Today the only physical reminder of the Western-themed restaurant's existence is a towering neon cactus sign that now advertises the tenants of Avalon Saugus , a mixed-use community of retail shops and luxury apartments.
Similarly, Route 1’s orange dinosaur was saved from extinction and found a home with the developers of Essex Landing, an apartment and retail complex that replaced Route 1 Miniature Golf and Batting Cages.
For those growing up in Massachusetts, Kummer notes, Route 1 was a “fixture” of traveling up to Maine and New Hampshire, acting as New England’s take on Route 66 and Las Vegas kitsch.
“It was this wonderful bit of Americana," he said. "And it was fun; it was a diversion to look at all those things."
Boston Public Radio listeners called in to share their memories of Kowloon and Route 1.
Bob, a listener calling in from Ipswich, remembered the moments he spent driving on Route 1 after picking up friends and family from Logan Airport in the 1980s, and being “a little embarrassed” by the gaudiness of Route 1. But things changed when he and his wife moved to an Air Force base in Japan in their early 20s and quickly became homesick.
“The ‘Today Show’ had a thing about that stretch of Route 1, and the kitsch and the Americana, and I got a little choked up watching it,” Bob said. “And I look at my wife, and she’s sobbing.”
