For more than three decades, Peking Chinese Restaurant has been more than a place to enjoy egg rolls, fried rice and family dinners. It has been a fixture in the Tomah community, where generations of customers have celebrated birthdays, gathered after ball games and made the restaurant part of their family traditions.
Now, after a devastating fire forced the longtime downtown restaurant to close, owner Jiaona Ng, known to friends and family as Jo, is preparing to welcome those customers back in a new location — determined to rebuild not only her business, but the sense of community that has sustained her family through one of the most difficult chapters of their lives.
"I would love to stay in downtown Tomah," Jo said. "There are so many memories over there because Peking has been there since the early 1990s. But unfortunately, remodeling the downtown building was just too expensive."
Jo said estimates to restore the original restaurant exceeded what was financially feasible, with kitchen reconstruction alone projected at more than $500,000 and a complete renovation estimated at over $1 million. Instead, she searched for an existing restaurant space where much of the kitchen infrastructure was already in place, allowing her family to invest their limited resources into reopening rather than rebuilding from scratch.
The new restaurant is smaller than the original, but familiar favorites will remain.
"The food is going to be the same," Jo said. "It's still the family running it. Everything, I try to do it the way it used to be."
Along with longtime customer favorites, diners can also expect several authentic Chinese dishes that Jo has introduced at her Madison restaurant after receiving positive feedback from customers there.
The new location will also feature something Peking has never offered before — a full liquor license. Although she laughs that she doesn't drink herself, she's excited to learn and experiment with Asian-inspired cocktails. One idea she's especially eager to develop is an Asian take on Wisconsin's iconic Old Fashioned, blending local tradition with asian flavor.
The journey back has been anything but easy.
The fire began in an upstairs apartment, not inside the restaurant itself. While much of the restaurant's equipment was salvageable, the building's structural condition complicated rebuilding efforts. During engineering inspections after the fire, workers discovered a missing support beam that made restoring the building impractical, leaving Jo with few options despite carrying insurance for decades.
Cleanup costs quickly mounted. Professional smoke and hazardous-material remediation, equipment removal, and other expenses consumed much of the insurance settlement, leaving little capital to start over. Jo said she is still paying mortgages on the downtown properties while working to establish the new restaurant.
Despite the financial strain, Jo never seriously considered leaving Tomah.
Following the fire, she briefly questioned whether she could continue after seeing the family business she had poured her life into disappear overnight. It was her daughters who helped change her perspective.
"They told me, 'Yes, we lost pretty much everything,'" Jo recalled. "'But we gained more than what we lost. Look at all your friends. Look at all your customers. Look at this community. They didn't leave you behind. They support you 100 percent.'"
Those words, she said, convinced her family that Tomah was still home.
"My dad said, 'We are not going anywhere. This is our home. We are not going to leave everybody behind. We will try to do whatever we can and make a return.'"
Jo vividly remembers the morning of the fire.
As she drove toward downtown, she noticed thick black smoke rising into the sky. At first, she and her sister refused to believe it could be their building because her brother was already inside preparing food for the day.
As they drew closer, the reality became unavoidable.
Jo and members of her family rushed inside, attempting to extinguish the flames before firefighters pulled them to safety.
"I do appreciate them," she said of the Tomah firefighters. "If it wasn't for them, we probably couldn't make it. In our hearts, we just wanted to put the fire out. We weren't thinking about the danger."
Today, much of the work at the new restaurant is still being completed by family members. Landscaping, exterior improvements and finishing touches will come gradually as finances allow.
"I hope people will be patient with me," Jo said. "I would love to make it beautiful, but I have to take one little step at a time."
She believes longtime customers won't be returning because of fresh paint or new décor.
Instead, they'll come back for the familiar food, the welcoming atmosphere and the memories that have made Peking part of Tomah for more than 30 years.
"I am really lucky," Jo said. "My longtime customers support me. We are not going anywhere. We call this home."
Jo hopes to reopen Peking Chinese at 918 E McCoy Blvd in
Tomah by September. Visit their facebook page at facebook.com/tomahpekingchineserestaurant to stay up to date. Jo plans to start looking for staff soon.
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here