Madame Sylvia Wu, whose iconic restaurant Madame Wu’s Garden served Hollywood’s A-listers for decades, has passed away. She was 106 years old.
Follow LA timeThe famous restaurant owner passed away on September 29.
When Wu, her husband, and their three children moved from New York to Los Angeles, she was shocked to see the unorthodox Cantonese food in the city and she wanted to change that. So she opened her first restaurant in Santa Monica in 1959, after her children went to boarding school and she had some spare time.
Madame Wu’s Garden started out in a small location and was later upgraded to a much larger venue as it evaporated. Follow Times, Wu boosted business for her new restaurant by writing a letter to members of her church and asking one of her friends, who is a studio director, to spread the word. this information. It pays off.
Wu’s restaurant quickly became famous with a well-known clientele, including stars like Cary Grant, Mae West, Frank Sinatra, Mia Farrow, Elizabeth Taylor, Johnny Carson, Carol Burnett, Walter Matthau, Robert Redford, Paul Newman, Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg, among others.
She closed the restaurant in 1998 as hikers and many Chinese casual eateries opened up and tastes in the city changed. At the time, she also said she wanted to spend more time with her grandchildren, but it wasn’t long before she retired.
The restaurant owner opened a new location, Madame Wu’s Asian Bistro & Sushi, in the New Grove shortly after, but it didn’t last as long as the first place, although people still fell in love with her. .
Wu is survived by two sons George and Patrick and many grandchildren. Her husband died in 2011.
