SuTao Cafe Marks 12 Years With Special Dinner Buffet This Weekend

On April 17, 1999, Susan Wu opened the doors of , a vegan Chinese restaurant in Frazer's Great Valley Center, at the intersection of routes 30 and 401.

The restaurant earned less than $100 that first day.

"It was pretty slow. The first customer who came in, actually, had checked the place out several times before we officially opened," Wu said Thursday. "He still comes in. He was here today at lunch time."

Of course, business picked up. This weekend, SuTao is celebrating its 12th anniversary with an expanded dinner buffet.

The spread will include the usual buffet items, plus an additional array of items from the menu. The buffet hasn't changed much since the restaurant opened, Wu said, because people want to see their favorite dishes even if they've been away for years.

Wu and her husband, Terrence Li, first came to America from Beijing, China, in 1989. He studied accounting at Yale University while she pursued her MBA at the University of New Haven. After graduation, they moved to a Malvern apartment, across from the post office on West King Street.

Both had been vegan—meaning they didn't eat any animal products—for almost a decade by that point, and Wu was frustrated by the lack of options when dining out.

"When I used to go out with friends, they would tease me and say I was a rabbit. Because the only thing I can have is salad," Wu said. "The goal of opening this restaurant is not just to serve vegan or vegetarian customers. My goal was to get people educated that vegetarian food doesn’t have to taste like just plain, raw vegetables."

Over the years, Wu has experienced the highs and lows of the restaurant business. In her first year, she catered a wedding at SuTao—the ceremony was performed right there in the dining room. Another time, she arrived to find the place flooded due to a plumbing problem.

Her neighbors in the Great Valley Center—including an Indian restaurant, a pizza shop and a more traditional Chinese restaurant—are like residential neighbors, borrowing ingredients from each other when they run out.

"We kind of help each other. If I’m short of anything, they can lend me ingredients to get my meal fixed," Wu said.

SuTao's success hasn't come without sacrifice. When she opened her first restaurant in Chestnut Hill in the late '90s, the workload was so intense that she sent her son to live with her parents in China for more than a year. That restaurant closed, but she still works 70 hours a week at SuTao, spread across seven days, to keep the restaurant humming.

Her schedule doesn't leave much time for hobbies or dining out at other local restaurants. But Wu and her husband make time to practice Qigong, an ancient Chinese discipline aligning mind, breath and movement to achieve calmness.

"As a female entrepreneur, it's different from a man. You have to think about lots of things happening in the house," Wu said. "I have to pick [my son] up from school, fix dinner for him, make sure he has clothes."

When her son goes to college, she expects to have more time to focus on the business, and hopes to open up another, more upscale establishment.

"It will always be my dream to open other restaurants. This is my first baby, and I've gained experience. But I do have dreams in my mind," she said.

12th Anniversary Buffet

$20 per person; reservations are encouraged.

Saturday, April 16, 5 to 9:30 p.m.

Sunday, April 17, 5 to 9 p.m.