Oriental Chow Mein Noodle Co. set to reopen after June fire

taiwanese noodles anyone ? Fall River ‘s most celebrated noodle factory could be churning out its internationally recognized yellow-tinged boxes by early November, and owner Barbara Wong wishes it would come sooner. Fire gutted the 7,200-square-foot Oriental Chow Mein Noodle Co. on Eighth Street on June 18 after a small fire ignited inside a fryolator. The extensive damage made the production and repositing area of the build a entire passing, freezing output for months. Wong said getting back to business was delayed because they practically had to rebuild the entire inner of the storehouse. Most of the fresh walls and floor tiles are in, and Wong said the new equipment should arrive sometime late this week.

“ We ’ ra hoping we can open the first workweek of November, that ’ s what my goal is, ” said Wong. “ They ’ ra doing the floors now, and the new fryolator is coming in Thursday. nothing will be left from the begin. ” Wong said the storehouse has been flooded with calls and visitors asking when the noodles will be sold again. “ We ’ ve get calls from Alaska, Hawaii and all the other states. even when I am shopping, people are coming up to me and asking me when the noodles will be back, ” said Wong. “ I never thought this would upset so many people, that we touched indeed many. We want to thank everyone for their solitaire. ” The company averaged more than 2,000 pounds of noodle production a day under the “ Hoo Mee ” brand chow mein in the yellow box that was sold at hundreds of supermarkets around the state adenine well as chinese restaurants, many of which have tried unsuccessfully to find a alike noodle to Oriental or have been forced to make their own. “ The restaurants will be glad to see us back in business, because many of them have resorted to making their own, ” said 30-year employee and build Supervisor Dan Tremblay. “ It will free up their time now. ” Like Wong, Tremblay said he and the contractors renovating the at heart of the build normally airfield questions about when the noodles will be available again.

“ I ’ d say about every 10 minutes or so person pulls up to the build to ask, ” said Tremblay. “ Watch, when you walk out, person will likely stop and ask you, excessively. There are barely indeed many people that have been coming here for years. ” Tremblay said that Wong, 77, could have easily called it quits after the ardor, as many would have. But alternatively, she took it as a challenge to keep going. Tremblay said Oriental likely wouldn ’ triiodothyronine have half the customers if it wasn ’ thymine for Wong ’ mho nature of making everyone feel welcome angstrom soon as they step inside the store. “ I did it for my children and for the people of Fall River that are more then friends to me, they are family. People are very kind in this area. Many of them bring me fruits and vegetables when they come in to buy noodles, ” said Wong. “ They make you want to come to work each day. They make me want to do it. ” Tremblay said they couldn ’ deoxythymidine monophosphate speck an demand opening date, saying he would know more toward the end of October, saying only that the begin of November “ looked dear ” as a probationary open date. Tremblay said after the store reopens — it will continue to sell both wholesale and retail — it will take another two weeks to get the supermarket shelves in full replenished through its distributors.

Wong said when the noodles do return, people should expect the lapp taste as they did way back when the business first opened in 1926, and the lapp one people have come to know and love every class since then. “ It will be what everyone remembers, ” said Wong. “ The noodles will be the lapp, if not better. ” E-mail Jay Pateakos at jpateakos @ heraldnews.com .