THOSE WERE THE DAYS

THE table had the air of reunion, as if the senior family members had gathered to catch up on old times. The collective age was ... well, one member alone would have taken us back to the Qing Dynasty. This was Emily, and she has just dropped off to sleep.

'Emily, it's time I took you home,' says a solicitous Neil MacKenzie, owner of Jimmy's Kitchen group and nephew of founder Aaron 'Jimmy' Landau, the man whose name has become synonymous in Hong Kong with hearty Western cooking of the kind that has made traders, civil servants and Jardine Johnnies feel at home for years.

Emily is 86 and worked as cashier at Jimmy's for 40 years. She has known Neil, Jimmy's great nephew, since he was a boy. She perked up at the sound of his voice in her ear in the manner of all elderly people embarrassed at having been caught dozing.

'Nonsense,' she replies, 'I can find my own way home perfectly well.' Then, perhaps remembering that home is the depths of Tsim Sha Tsui and we are at Landau's in north Wan Chai, she says with a giggle: 'Still, never turn down a good offer.' Around the table are Tommy, Sum and Peter, a trio of Shanghainese who as young men fled their native city in the face of the Red Army. They joined the Jimmy's family after a number of jobs in the watering holes of sleepy old Hong Kong - across the table drift names from the romantic, misty past, names like the Paramount, the Crystal Lounge and the Parisian Grill, all long since gone along with the people who used to frequent them.

That was more than 30 years ago. Since then they have risen to become respected captains, known to hundreds of satisfied customers. With them is David, the baby of the group who's been doing the books for a mere 20 years. But he is different, he says. He is Cantonese.

There is something unique about this breed of men, along with their Shanghai tailor cousin, which sets them apart from others in the service business. It is an attitude perhaps. David agrees: 'What sets them apart from us Cantonese is that they have exceptional memories and a very traditional style of service. The Cantonese basically don't want to meet you, they don't want to know you, they don't see it as part of their job.' Tommy tells the story of one Mr Mitchell who, it is said, almost collapsed with heart failure in Jimmy's in Central when after an absence of 10 years he was greeted by name and shown to the same table he used to eat at before he retired from Hong Kong. Perhaps that's why Tommy always refers to customers as guests.

The key, they all agree, is that Jimmy's - personified first by Jimmy himself, then by Leo and David Landau and now by owners Neil MacKenzie and Peter Schlipf - is as honest a family business as mashed potato and bread and butter pudding. 'We've always had good bosses, without them I'd jog right back to China,' says 64-year-old Tommy who runs to Central from his home in North Point and on the way does five circuits of Victoria Park. 'Mr Neil loaned me money for the education of my children. No one would work for 33 years for a company if the boss was no good.' 'In fact, over the years many young staff have left to go elsewhere for more money,' Sum chips in. 'But they came back again in the end.' Emily Lopes was born in Hong Kong but because her father was Macanese she holds a Portuguese passport and plans to set up home in the Algarve later this year. 'They used to call me incorrigible,' she recalls. 'Because I never came to work on time, but forsome reason Mr Leo liked me.' 'She was always late,' the captains chorus, 'but we liked her very much.' Sum adds: 'She never lost her temper although sometimes she used to talk a lot, mostly to herself under her breath.' 'That's because I don't like to be bossed,' Emily says, 'it works both ways, doesn't it?' The conversation changes. Someone brings up the subject of two fires that hit Jimmy's Kitchen when it was in the old China Building, on the corner of Pedder Street and Queen's Road, where it was founded in 1928 by Aaron Landau, an east European who had owned casinos in Shanghai. One fire destroyed the wooden floor; the other caused a lot of smoke when some oil caught alight in the kitchen. Everyone grabbed their drinks and ran out into Theatre Lane but only two people came back to pay, it was agreed.