One of the ways to define an “old-timer” in Port Townsend is to mention the name of Bobby Louie and see if there’s a spark of recognition.
Louie, a diminutive Chinese-American, ran a little Chinese restaurant on the Port Townsend waterfront at the end of Adams Street for many years, and lived quietly in the upstairs of the Fowler Building (The Leader) for many years more. He departed those quarters reluctantly at the age of 87 in 1999, and moved to be closer to family in Seattle. It was a sad departure for him and the newspaper staff, all of whom Louie had seen arrive over almost five decades. But the stairs finally proved too much for him.
On Feb. 14 at the age of 93, Louie died at Swedish Hospital in Seattle. His passing ended a chapter in Port Townsend’s history.
Barbara Heiman Morris of Port Townsend said Bobby Louie “was like a second father to me,” looking out after her since she was 7 years old and looking out for her family members through the years. Her mother, Betty Bare, became Louie’s friend, his partner and his waitress for decades. The Bare family became Louie’s Port Townsend family.
He was born in China as Gim Hong Louie on June 16, 1911, according to the story Louie told The Leader in 1999. At the age of 15, in 1927, he came to San Francisco by steamer. He worked in laundries and kitchens, getting as far north as Boise, Idaho, before returning to China in 1929 to marry. He had two children before Louie came to the Pacific Northwest. Living in the cities of Yakima, Seattle, Portland and Tacoma, Louie worked as a cook and keno dealer. In 1956 he moved to Port Townsend at the invitation of a cousin.
Louie worked as a cook in the Central Café, where he met Bare. In 1958 he looked into a small apartment upstairs in the Fowler Building, constructed of sandstone in 1874 and home of the newspaper since 1914.
$27.50 per month
Then-Publisher Richard McCurdy and his office manager, LaVerne Tice, rented Louie Apartment No. 2, the middle unit of the three living quarters. The rent was $27.50 per month.
“He kept to himself,” recalled Tice recently. “He paid his rent two times a year, in cash. It was never in advance. It was always on time.” Payment often coincided with the Chinese New Year.
Louie came and went quietly, working for years at his restaurant and later just coming and going. He was often seen walking slowly to the old Safeway store (now Swain's) and the new store near Kah Tai Lagoon. He turned down rides from the residents who knew him. “No thank, I walk,” he said, recalled former Leader Publisher Frank Garred.
Through those years his rent never changed. When Garred bought The Leader from McCurdy in 1967, Louie and his $27.50 rent came with the building. In April 1999, when Louie finally shuffled out for the last time, his belongings in two pickups, he was still paying that tab. He had lived in Apartment No. 2 for 47 years.
The apartment itself became its own little legend. Louie was very frugal, saving piles of papers and material he thought might be reusable. The apartment came to collect dozens of paper bags full of stuff, and his outside window shade became torn and stained. It was one of the first things out-of-town visitors saw if they were visiting with Port Townsend Chamber of Commerce Director Tim Caldwell, whose office window looked out on Louie’s apartment from the Bank of America building. But Louie would get very upset if anyone came in to fix the place, as plumbers occasionally did to find a leak.
“Not only was he a relic, but everything in the place was ancient too,” said Garred.
Best steaks
Old-timers fondly recall his restaurant, located between what is now April Fool & Penny Too and what is now Nifty Fiftys. Louie and Bare bought the place and called it Bob’s Café around 1959.
He prepared Chinese and American food, specializing in steaks. He had a jukebox, 10 bar stools and five tables. Bob’s stayed open until 2 a.m.
Tom Camfield, longtime Leader photographer, reporter and sometimes printer, recalled going to Bobby’s restaurant after downtown dances. “He was open late,” said Camfield. “We’d stop there after the dance. We’d go in and order, and then he’d get orders to go. He would fill those orders first.”
Garred recalled taking wife Pat to Bobby’s when they arrived in the late 1960s. The place was small, and although Louie was busy with takeout orders, he and Pat were the only diners.
“We were told how great the food was, and we sat down and ate,” he recalled. “Later we told people we ate there, and people laughed and said, ‘No one goes there to eat! You always go in and get the takeout!’”
Louie and the Bare family became very close. Betty Bare included him in her family holidays. Her daughters, Sharon Clark (now of Kala Point) and Barbara Heiman Morris (of Port Townsend), also worked there. Bare has passed away, but her family said Bobby was family.
Barbara Morris said she’ll never forget the quality of Bobby Louie’s food.
“I miss his cooking so bad,” she said. “He used to have the mayor of Seattle fly over for his steak. He made the best juiciest steak. It just melted in your mouth.”
After the downtown restaurant building was condemned and razed in the early 1970s, he opened a café and cocktail lounge in an old garage on upper Sims Way, the building that now houses the Highway Twenty Roadhouse, said Morris. He retired from that in 1975.
After that, Louie spent time in his apartment, made frequent visits to the Bare family, and occasional visits to Seattle. When he could no longer make the stairs, his family found him senior housing in Seattle. The day Louie left The Leader, said longtime Leader bookkeeper Betty Grewell, he showed his emotions for the first time. With tears, he presented Chinese pastries to the newspaper’s employees.
While a private person, Louie was always very friendly in his own quiet way, recalled Tice.
“There were a few other older Chinese gentlemen around here who were like that,” said Tice. Names like Ah Tom, who hauled and sold fresh produce on the streets, and Bobby Gow are mentioned. All are gone, and now Bobby Louie is too.
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