Centennial Stories: Kowloon, Bruins Forever Linked Through History

SAUGUS, Mass. – When you walk through the entryway of Kowloon, photos of famed actors, comedians, and wrestlers line the walls. But perhaps the most well represented group is the Boston Bruins.

From Johnny Bucyk to Gerry Cheevers to Ken Hodge to Derek Sanderson to Terry O’Reilly to Rick Middleton to Don Cherry to Brad Park to Stan Jonathan to Ray Bourque to Zdeno Chara, everywhere you turn as you enter the main dining room, a signed photo of a Bruins great is bound to catch your eye.

Why, you might ask?

Well, this is the story of how a renowned local restaurant and a fabled Original Six hockey team became forever linked through history:

The “The Mandarin House” restaurant, seating just 40-50 people, was established in 1950 on Route 1 in Saugus, Massachusetts. In 1958, Madeline and Bill Wong became the second generation to take over the restaurant and turned it into “Kowloon.”

Over the course of the past 65 years, the Kowloon has grown into one of the largest and most famed restaurants in the United States, with a capacity of some 1,200 guests.

And on any given night through the course of the past seven-plus decades, you just might have been seated next to one of the Black & Gold’s all-time greats.

Johnny Bucyk first arrived in Boston in 1957 and it wasn’t long before he made his way to the Kowloon. Nearly 70 years later, the Bruins legend, whose No. 9 hangs in the TD Garden rafters, still regularly visits the Chinese food staple.

Bucyk: “When I was playing, we started to come and I’ve been coming here ever since 1958 since they’ve had it. They were all hockey fans here. They were always so polite and so friendly. We had a lot of fun.”

Sometimes, too much fun. One night in the 1970s a bit of mischief led one player to order takeout to the local police barracks.

Bucyk: “The best story I ever had was one of our players – I don’t want to mention who – got picked up by the police…they told him to make one phone call. Would you believe he phoned Kowloon? They walked in [to the station] with a basket of food.”

Gerry Cheevers: “I don’t think [some of the stories] can be published…we just had a good time here.”

It was during those days of the Big Bad Bruins that postgame visits to the Kowloon were as frequent as a Bobby Orr highlight. Thus, a decades-long tradition commenced.

Bucyk: “We used to come here after almost every home game. They had a back room for us. The original owners [Madeline and Bill], they just treated us so well. We used to love coming here. The food was always great.”

Cheevers: “I guess my first year in Boston, we were coming home from a late practice, or a late night, and we always stopped at Kowloon. I don’t think we ever took it to go. We always sat there. The people here treated us well. The food is great to this day. The food is as good as it was 50 years ago. In fact, I’d like to open up a Kowloon [where I live] in Florida.”

The postgame tradition continued – and peaked – into the Lunch Pail A.C. era when coach Don Cherry was among the most fervent Kowloon customers, as was Rick Middleton, who made trips to the restaurant a family tradition for decades.

Middleton: “I always joke that I’ve been drinking Fog Cutters since 1977…all my kid’s birthdays were done here. The Wong family has just been so gracious, not only to me but to all the Bruins because everybody used to live on the North Shore and they would just open up their hearts and take care of you.

“If we needed a table in the back or we needed something special, they always did it for us. I always brought my two sons and daughter here for all their birthdays right up to their 18th birthdays. It’s been a great history with this family.”

Bobby Wong, part of the third generation of Kowloon ownership, remembers that it was during the Cherry years that fans started to find out about the B’s postgame hangout.

Wong: “When it really hit its peak and it really became that even customers knew that they’d be up at the restaurant after a game was when Don Cherry was the coach…it was kind of good luck for him to drop by the restaurant for takeout on the way home. I think the Boston Herald actually did a story on it because he brought it up.

“It got to the point that after the games the players would come in with him and they would have almost like a team dinner. That’s how it grew. It was probably the peak as far as the number of players at that time.

“It was exciting…customers knowing that they were gonna be here, we would get a big rush after a game…we became friends with many of them over the years and still remain friends with a lot of them that come in.”

At the end of each season, Cherry would hold the B’s informal end-of-year parties at the restaurant. And even after he left Boston, the coach still opted to hold a team function at his favorite spot.

Wong: “At the end of the season, we invited the entire team…there’s actually a picture on the wall. My mother and father are in that picture. That was the heyday…it was a great time…the first game that he came back as a coach since he left Boston, he brought the entire Colorado [Rockies] hockey team into the restaurant as well.”

For Hall of Famer Ray Bourque, who has lived on the North Shore for years, visits to the Kowloon have also become a family custom.

Bourque: “I just remember my wife being pregnant and having cravings for Kowloon and the doctor telling her at the end that you’ve got to have something really spicy and she tried it here.

“Just [remember] stopping here almost every home game going home…we all lived on the North Shore. Back then, everybody lived in Lynnfield, Danvers, Boxford, Topsfield – the practice rink was in Danvers. It was on the way home. It was no problem with parking, you knew how you were treated, you knew they were amazing with us. If you didn’t have anything set up or whatever, they would accommodate whatever amount of people we were bringing.

“A long tradition that started way before I got here – and I got here a long time ago. I think Kowloon was Grapes’ [Don Cherry] favorite restaurant in Boston and he spent many, many nights here after games as well.”

Following the Cherry days, the regularity with which the current Bruins would frequent the Kowloon began to fade as they trended more towards downtown Boston. The connection, however, remained, particularly for those with local roots like Melrose native Andy Brickley and Boxboro native Bob Sweeney, who donned the Spoked-B through the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Brickley: “Every Friday night my parents would go to the Hilltop which was right across the street on the other side of Route 1. Because you were so in tune with what the Bruins were and what they were about and how accessible they were as a group, and the fact that they had all this swagger, yeah, you knew where they hung out and you knew that the Kowloon was Bruins friendly.

“I never had the opportunity to get there and interact with the players when they were there because I was much too young, but we were aware that it was one of their go-tos.”

Sweeney: “I caught the tail end of it, but definitely the guys from the ’70s and early to mid ‘80s, this was a staple for sure…guys on the way home, this was always [the spot]…a lot of guys lived in the Lynnfield area, Peabody, and everybody used to stop here. The Wongs have been unbelievable to the Bruins for so many years. We can’t thank them enough.”

In addition to their hospitality at the restaurant, the Wong family has also been generous in giving back to the community and the Boston Bruins Foundation.

Sweeney: “Andy and Bobby and all the Wongs have been so supportive for the Bruins, not only off the ice but all the initiatives that we do in the community, they’re always the first ones to step up and help out and donate whatever you need, food or gift certificates.

“I just can’t say enough good things about the Wong family. They’ve been so good to the Bruins over the years. Been part of the Bruins history for over 50 years.”

Even the most recent generations of Bruins have discovered Kowloon. In recent years, the likes of Zdeno Chara, Shawn Thornton, Brad Marchand, Nick Foligno, and Charlestown native Matt Grzelcyk – among many others – have made stops at the restaurant.

Grzelcyk: “I would always drive by it because we played at HockeyTown [on the opposite side of Route 1 as a kid]. I never actually went in [to eat], but there was always this aura about it. I knew of it because my dad worked at the Garden, that all the wrestlers would go and I was huge into the WWE Raw and stuff. I think I had been in there before and seen the pictures on the wall, but I had never been there until this past summer. I’m [ticked] that I never went [before].”

Thanks to a connection between Charlie McAvoy and the Wong family, McAvoy, Grzelcyk, and former Bruins forward Noel Acciari made a summer visit to Kowloon for Bingo night.

Grzelcyk: “They have Bingo night every Wednesday night. It was like the most fun I had all summer, it was awesome…I saw it’s on Uber Eats, too, which is dangerous. But that will be an annual thing now. Play Bingo, sit outside in the back. It was unbelievable and the food is so good, too.”

And, of course, the old regulars still stop by from time to time, too.

Wong: “Jean Ratelle will still stop by, Johnny Bucyk – he was a staple and will still come by even now…even Stan Jonathan when he would be back in the area coming from Canada. It almost built a long-term friendship over the years and it’s maintained even now. Once in a while, I’ll see Don Marcotte come in with his family. Terry O’Reilly. Rick Middleton still comes in every now and then.”

One of the most famous Bruins-Kowloon stories came back in the 2000s when the club held an alumni meeting at the restaurant as they plotted how to move the “Boston Bruins Alumni Association” forward.

Brickley: “Johnny Buck, to his credit, he ran the Bruins Alumni from the first day he retired. It wouldn’t exist without his efforts. But as time marched on and more players retired and more people got involved, and the fact that we had to do something and register and be a nonprofit in order do the fundraising that we like to do…there was a lot of different opinions of, 'what do we need to do?' and ‘what are we doing with the money that is raised?’”

When a discussion about who was considered a “Bruins alum” became a bit contentious, the legendary Milt Schmidt rose to his feet.

Brickley: “It led to some hard discussions…it was designed to be a feel-good meeting, but it turned to where there was a little animosity in the room. We were trying to resolve it moving forward and let’s all get on the same page.

“Milt, I don’t know how old he was at the time, but he commanded the room like nobody else and he just stood up and said the words that everybody needed to hear: ‘once a Bruin, always a Bruin.’

“I think that finally got the alumni on the right track and from that point on, everything lined up and it’s just been a great success ever since. That’s my favorite story about Milt because it had Milt Schmidt written all over it because it was, ‘we’re gonna do this and we’re gonna do it the right way.’”

Fittingly, the Bruins alums gathered at Kowloon once again as they kicked off their Centennial festivities. On Monday night of opening week, Chara and Chris Kelly entertained guests during a live recording of the Bruins’ “Cue the Memories” podcast.

But perhaps the grandest event of them all came the following night when dozens of former Bruins came together for a reunion dinner.

Among those that were in attendance: Jason Allison, Bob Beers, Bourque, Brickley, Bucyk, John Carter, Cheevers, Bruce Crowder, Gary Galley, Ken Hodge Jr. and Ken Hodge Sr., Craig Janney, Eddie Johnston, Gord Kluzak, Reggie Lemelin, Ken Linseman, Marcotte, former assistant coach and longtime scout Tom McVie, Middleton, Mike Milbury, Jay Miller, Andy Moog, Mark Mowers, Cam Neely, Bobby Orr, Brad Park, Ratelle, O’Reilly, Barry Pederson, Andrew Raycroft, Derek Sanderson, Tim Schaller, Dave Shaw, Frank Simonetti, Bob Sweeney, and Don Sweeney.

Bob Sweeney: “It’s so fitting that we’re having this celebration starting off here.”

Brickley: “Well, that most recent [event] was the most spectacular. Tuesday of the first Centennial Week was something spectacular. It was so good, personally, to be able to walk into that Kowloon and see the guys that I idolized, my heroes – some guys that you see on a regular basis like John Buck and Bobby…you see Derek every now and then.

“To see those guys and be able to reminisce and to remember the dreams you had as a kid. To see both goalies, Cheesie [Gerry Cheevers] and [Eddie Johnston], everybody that was affiliated with that team…Hodgie, Donny Marcotte.”

“And those that had passed I thought about that same night. That was my first emotion when I walked into the room – and then I saw my generation, the late ‘80s and early ‘90s guys. We were very well represented and that has even more meaning to me because I shared the locker room with those guys, the wins and losses, and almosts that we had.

“That was really cool to see everybody that made the effort to come, the turnout. It was just one big locker room that Tuesday night. The hockey game was spectacular, the gold carpet was spectacular, the Gala was off the charts. But Tuesday was more the element that I appreciate the most.

“It was one big locker room and one big reminisce and one big sense of brotherhood and connection. I think everybody had those same sentiments.”

Wong: “It was almost like a class reunion…people that you say we grew up with in a way. Some of them have been coming in still on a regular basis, but there were so many faces that haven’t been in the restaurant for so long. It was nice to see them.”

And while the postgame stops on Route 1 have long been a thing of the past, the bond between the Bruins and Kowloon lives on.

Wong: “It feels like the glory years. My mother and father were alive then and part of that whole excitement, as well, that we had a close bond with the Boston Bruins. Not many families can say that. It was just a very fond time.

“Great moments and a feel-good situation. That’s one of the memories that will last forever of us running the restaurant for so many years. There are many highlights but that’s definitely one of the periods and eras that we remember with fondness. A lot of fun.

“We’re always rooting for the Bruins to win the Stanley Cup.”