1 hr. ago
There is exactly one rule that has never bent at House of Nanking, the cramped, beloved Shanghainese spot in San Francisco's Chinatown: everyone waits. No one skips the line. Not Francis Ford Coppola, not anyone. So, in 1997, when a young actor in all black turned up hoping for a table, Peter Fang did what he did to everybody.
His daughter Kathy, then a starstruck fan, recognized the man instantly and begged her father to let him skip the line. As Kathy told the SF Standard, her dad refused without budging, which is its own kind of immigrant-parent comedy. "Not only do they not give an inch, but they can embarrass you, all within five minutes," she said.
The embarrassment was just getting started. Peter, who didn't watch many movies, walked over, took one look at the famous-seeming customer, and reached for the only relevant name filed in his head. "Kathy, come take a picture!" he called out. "It's him! It's Sean Connery!"
It was not Sean Connery. It was Keanu Reeves.
Mortified, Kathy apologized on her father's behalf. Reeves, by every account the most gracious man in show business, took it perfectly. As the SF Standard reported, he thanked Peter and said he was deeply honored to be mistaken for an actor as talented as Sean Connery. Before he left, Kathy grabbed a disposable camera and snapped a photo with him. It went up by the front window and stayed there for decades. "Keanu Reeves was such a gentleman," Kathy recalled. "You know how everybody talks about him being the nicest person in the industry."
His daughter Kathy, then a starstruck fan, recognized the man instantly and begged her father to let him skip the line. As Kathy told the SF Standard, her dad refused without budging, which is its own kind of immigrant-parent comedy. "Not only do they not give an inch, but they can embarrass you, all within five minutes," she said.
The embarrassment was just getting started. Peter, who didn't watch many movies, walked over, took one look at the famous-seeming customer, and reached for the only relevant name filed in his head. "Kathy, come take a picture!" he called out. "It's him! It's Sean Connery!"
It was not Sean Connery. It was Keanu Reeves.
Mortified, Kathy apologized on her father's behalf. Reeves, by every account the most gracious man in show business, took it perfectly. As the SF Standard reported, he thanked Peter and said he was deeply honored to be mistaken for an actor as talented as Sean Connery. Before he left, Kathy grabbed a disposable camera and snapped a photo with him. It went up by the front window and stayed there for decades. "Keanu Reeves was such a gentleman," Kathy recalled. "You know how everybody talks about him being the nicest person in the industry."
