Longtime Decatur Chinese restaurant Pyng Ho has closed after 45 years of business.
A sign was posted on Pyng Ho’s door at 1357 Clairmont Road on Jan. 1 announcing the closure, Decaturish reported. Owner Steve Jou confirmed the restaurant’s closure to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“I know this may come as a surprise to many of you, but we are excited to move on to the next phase of our lives,” the statement said. “I am grateful to have had the opportunity to share a small part of my culture with all of you over the years, and I intend to continue that in my next venture.”
Pyng Ho opened in Decatur on Dec. 26, 1979, according to the restaurant’s website, but it got its start many years earlier in South Korea where Jou Ming Chang operated it under the same name. Upon reuniting with his family in Atlanta, Jou Ming Chang taught his grandson and the current owner, Steve Jou, how to cook traditional Chinese dishes.
Jou told the AJC that the business never fully recovered after COVID-19, and he struggled to staff the restaurant. After more than four decades of business, he decided it was time to “move on to the next chapter.”
Throughout the years, “the community, the neighborhood has been very supportive,” Jou said. “I have very loyal customers and I’m very happy for it.”
Jou said in the future he plans to offer catering and private chef services, which will continue to pull from the Pyng Ho menu.
The menu included a variety of street food, seafood and noodle dishes like har gow, or tapioca skin stuffed with shrimp, beef short ribs, crispy soft-shell crabs, prawns with ginger and garlic sauce and ghost pepper chicken.
Credit: Steve Jou
Credit: Steve Jou
“The restaurant business is in our blood,” Steve Jou said in a 1994 interview with former Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter Lessie Scurry. “It’s what we grew up doing.”
Pyng Ho is one of several Atlanta restaurants to close in the past few months, including Biltong Bar in Ponce City Market, which will be replaced by a tapas concept from chef Hector Santiago, LT’s Wings in southwest Atlanta, Lean Draft House in West End and Ammazza Pizza in Old Fourth Ward.
This article has been updated to include a comment from Steve Jou.
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