Doors close on bitter-sweet end of era
Huge queue of customers waits to buy the results of Tai Cheong's last 14-hour baking marathon
Customers wanting a last taste of the Tai Cheong Bakery's famed wares crammed Lyndhurst Terrace in Central yesterday, the final day of operations at the site the bakery has occupied for more than half a century.
Queuing for up to an hour, they bought thousands of egg tarts, doughnuts and other products before the shop closed at 8.55pm after a 14-hour baking marathon.
The operators had opened at 7.30am and vowed to stay open until they ran out of ingredients.
The doughnuts sold out first, about 5pm, and just before 7pm only 25 trays of egg tarts - proclaimed the world's best by former governor Chris Patten - remained.
Owner Au Yeung Tin-yun had predicted earlier he would sell about 2,000 tarts. By 8pm he had lost count, but said sales were up about 50 per cent. The shop usually sells 1,300 to 1,500 a day.
The bakery, which has been forced out by a steep rent increase, from $38,000 to $80,000 a month, plans to open at another location yet to be chosen.
An upset Kwong Lin-siu, 81, a customer for 30 years, was first in the queue - but it wasn't egg tarts she was after but two pounds of plain bread. 'It's handmade. It just tastes different from the machine-made bread,' she said.
First to buy egg tarts when they went on sale at 8.30am was George Wong Chi-wai, 55, who works at a picture framing store on Lyndhurst Terrace. A customer for 16 years, he persuaded staff to sell him 16 tarts while most were limited to a dozen.
'I've known the staff for a long time,' he said. 'I bought them for my daughter. The egg tarts just taste very good.'
The last customer of the day was Vanessa Wu, an overseas Chinese who grabbed the last four egg tarts.
'I just walked by after going to the gym,' she said.
Although she was not a long-term customer, she said she was 'a little upset' about the closure.
German Daniel Oldeweme, 25, who has been in town for a week on a working holiday, was among the last customers. 'I don't understand why such a traditional shop has to close. I heard it's because of the high rent. What a pity,' he said.
The bakery's staff waved goodbye to the public and pulled down the gate at 8.55pm. The owner said he was sad about the closure.
'We just don't have a choice,' said Mr Au Yeung. 'This is our last day. We have to do our best. I'm hoping to reopen in Central. After finishing today we will check out the new locations.'
Liberal Party legislator Tommy Cheung Yu-yan said about 10 potential new homes had been found, most in Central. 'But we will have to wait for the owner to check out those places himself,' he said.
