Wok-star treatment

Lakeside Chinese Deli was the kind of restaurant that often looked closed even when it was, in fact, still open. So I figured reports of its demise must have been mistaken.

The old hole punched into its sign and the frequently half-drawn window blinds were simply the ideal camouflage from Chinatown tourists who weren't adventurous enough to pass through its unassuming door.

For those that did, Lakeside was the ultimate joint. It was home to some of the best hand-crafted dim sum I've ever eaten. And I refused to believe the distress calls e-mailed from readers reporting that it had really closed for good.

"PLEASE tell me I'm wrong . . . I'm in half a panic," wrote Michael Feuda.

"Say it ain't so!!" wrote John Dougherty, who was crestfallen when he saw the sign announcing the owners' retirement taped to Lakeside's door.

I went to investigate, and the bad news was obvious. The retirement notice was there and the door was ajar, and inside, Lakeside's no-frills tile dining room was in mid-demolition shambles.

Then a Chinatown miracle happened.

I closed my eyes for a moment to imagine the final lunch I never got to taste - the steaming green mounds of tiny bok choy studded with cloves of garlic, the platters of yawning clams overflowing with soy-tinged pork and peppers, the little dim-sum dishes laden with frilly-edged pork-and-peanut dumplings and crispy chiu chow squares of shrimp and water chestnut.

When I opened my eyes, Lakeside's owners were there. Brenda and Woon Leung had been passing in front of their old storefront at that very moment, and at the familiar sight of an old customer, Brenda stopped to chat. (Though I'd written about Lakeside many times, they had never realized who I was.)

"I haven't been able to sleep," she confided. "I miss my customers so much. But we are also very tired."

The Leungs hardly look retiring age - Brenda is 57, chef Woon is 61. But after 32 years in business, including nearly two decades at Lakeside, it was time to turn off the woks. Woon had trained some of Chinatown's best cooks over the years, including Brenda's brother, Eric Ng, who ran Lakeside's kitchen in recent years. But Woon had also successfully undergone treatments related to throat cancer. He needed to slow down.