'It's an art' for Spokane Chinese restaurants that tackle large crowds on Christmas
Dec. 24—At 3:30 p.m. on Christmas Eve, China Dragon bar manager Mandie Dever braces herself for chaos.
She paces behind the bar and waits on the handful of patrons seated at the bar's tables. It's the calm before the storm; the shrill near-nonstop overlapping rings of the restaurant's two phones foreshadows the impending rush of customers on one of Chinese restaurants' busiest days of the year.
With most businesses closing for Christmas, many look forward to their holiday off. That's not the case at some Chinese restaurants that historically stay open in Spokane. Swaths of hungry patrons flood the open eateries of China Dragon and Red Dragon Northside, the latter open for Christmas Eve.
To accommodate the chaos, It's all hands on deck. Manager Rochelle Davis hasn't had a Christmas or Christmas Eve off in the 17 years she's worked at China Dragon. She's used to working the holiday, but it's not easy, especially with the long hours. Her morning started at 10 a.m. at Costco bulk shopping for the restaurant, and she doesn't clock out until after 10 p.m. She's back at work on Christmas Day.
"It's really hard; sometimes people get really nasty," she said in the brief lag between seating patrons and answering the phone. She's just trying to keep her calm.
For Dever, being the birthday girl isn't a valid excuse to dodge the Christmas draft. With her birthday on Christmas Eve, Dever says people have to be nice to her.
The mom of three wishes she could spend the day around the tree with her family.
"You don't get to sit around and hang out," Dever said. "Everybody opens their presents, and you do it early so you can get ready and go to work, and everybody else does the Christmas stuff."
Dever has always worked Christmases because of the holiday pay and generous tips, but this year is especially hard with her oldest child home from the University of Montana for a week.
But she's excited to see the nonstop customer swell, with families happy to continue their tradition, many of whom are regulars she recognizes.
"We want the crowds; it's like a beautiful disaster," Dever said. "But you're still running around like a chicken with your head cut off."
Hostess Jordan Rogers has two Christmases at China Dragon under her belt. She juggles packing takeout orders, seating guests and answering phones, sometimes both at once. She's optimistic about working the holiday.
"It's also a good excuse not to attend family dinners or anything like that," she said, stuffing Styrofoam to-go boxes into a green plastic bag and tying the handles into a bow. More than a dozen of the parcels line each available surface at the hostess table like presents under a tree.
Will Burris, owner of Hillyard's Red Dragon Northside, part of a larger conglomerate of Chinese restaurants owned by his wife's family, said the eatery closes for Christmas "so the restaurant can breathe," and Christmas Eve is busy enough.
"I just want to make sure people have a good time, it's not rushed and not too chaotic," Burris said. "We've had some really chaotic Christmases."
To reduce the mayhem, he turns off the phones and delivery orders, a stark contrast to China Dragon's strategy.
Generally, he said, customers are patient and generous with their tips, but little errors from the staff, such as a misplaced mushroom, can cascade into delays.
In the holiday havoc, "the adrenaline starts to pump," Burris said. He reminds his staff to take deep breaths.
"It's an art and a religion and a sport all mixed together. It forces you to be here now, you have to pay attention and have to be present in order to put out timely product," he said.
Observers cite several reasons for their tradition. Some referenced the closing scene in the iconic movie A Christmas Story. With their original turkey dinner ruined, Ralphie's family turns to an open Chinese restaurant as a last resort for their Christmas dinner. The restaurant is empty save for the Parkers, a far cry from the packed lobby in Spokane's China Dragon.
Burris learned from a book, "The Fortune Cookie Chronicles," that the tradition is a transplant from New York City. Home to a sizable population of both non-Christian immigrants from China and Jewish families, neither of whom traditionally celebrate Christmas.
Jewish families would dine at Chinese places as the only restaurants open on Christmas, Burris said, and the tradition stuck.
Others just like Chinese food.
Dallace Sevier and stepdaughter Halle Nelson called in their order four hours in advance. A tradition his family has been observing for a decade, he's learned to call in his order as early as possible.
"It was just one of the few restaurants that were open," Sevier said. "We have a big meal the next day so rather than cook, we pick up."
Calling in to order his six-person dinner, Sevier said he could hear the other phone ringing in the background.
Customer Christie Johnson waits in the lobby for her No. 13 combo meal. A returning customer, though never on Christmas, she wasn't expecting the craziness.
She's used to a 20 -minute wait. At peak hours between 5-6:30 p.m. on Christmas, the wait for takeout is more than an hour.
"That's only natural that I pick the worst time," Johnson said.
Spokane native Ryan Carlson isn't a longtime observer of the tradition but called ahead to order his 20-plus person feast for his family. He'd heard of the tradition before but was surprised to see the line of hungry customers snaking around the entryway.
"Mostly, we were just craving Chinese, but we love the food here," Carlson said. It's one of his wife's favorite spots and he knows the well-liked cuisine will please others at his table.
"You don't have to clean up, you're wrapping gifts," he said. "Why not make it easier on yourself?"
Elena Perry's work is funded in part by members of the Spokane community via the Community Journalism and Civic Engagement Fund. This story can be republished by other organizations for free under a Creative Commons license. For more information on this, please contact our newspaper's managing editor.
