Munch Brunch

Munch Brunch was a a pizza and ice cream place that basically shows your era and if you hung around Chinatown People will say do you remember Munch Brunch? and you either remember it fondly thinking of memories and crazy stories. Or (like me) you look at them like they have two heads and you can't even get the idea of a Pizza and Ice Cream place being a CHINATOWN staple into your head... because you are not from that era. Munch Brunch became Chinatown Cafe. Here is a story for the old timers enjoyment and to pass down to the next generation.

Please pipe on in in the comments below.



"Hung Ching was a very misunderstood organization back then. People thought we were a gang. But actually we weren't. So you know the Knights"

The Knights were started by Reggie Wong and are known for their Volleyball and Basketball teams. I had always been under the impression that they were a part of Hung Ching. Like the Hung Ching volleyball team was the Knights.

"No they had a lot of the same people but they were separate organizations and they were just social clubs. People used to say, the way you distinguish between the Knights and Hung Ching, is the Knights they study, they play volleyball, Hung Ching they don't study, they just hang around..But we weren't bad. I mean maybe we weren't that studious, but we were just Town boys. We were from here, (Chinatown) and we cared a lot about this town. And some people don't realize that if it weren't for Hung Ching, all the gambling joints would have been taken over by this group from New York."

"Let me give you an example. We used to own a place, us and all the other Hung Ching boys, where Chinatown Cafe is now. It was a Pizza and Ice cream joint called Munch and Brunch."


"That was something we did a lot back then. A group of us would get together and start a business."

That sounds like a great way to learn about life and business, in a much more realistic way than school can teach you.

"So one day group  from New York was walking around Chinatown. And one of the first people they happened to stop was my brother. They said to him, ' Hey are you Hung Ching Jai?' And he said, 'No what's that? I don't know what you're talking about.' And they just kept going. So then he called me and described them to me. So It was a bunch of kids with army jackets, which was common back then, but what stood out was there was one kid wearing a red leather jacket. So I said.. okay... then I got another call from Munch and Brunch and they said that there was a group in there and that it looked suspicious. I asked them to describe them to me, and what stood out was, the Red leather Jacket again. I said, "Uh Oh." So we all went down there, all the Hung Ching Jai, and this was a difficult situation because you had kids coming in and out playing"

I forgot if he said Pin Ball or Ping Pong, but the point is this was a hot spot fro the neighborhood kids to come hang out, eat pizza and ice cream etc.

"So we see these guys and their all sitting at different tables. So we decided. Okay just jump them. So one guy in the corner pulled a gun and someone tackled him and there was one gun shot. Luckily it didn't hit anyone. But then that gun slid across the floor, just like in the movies, "he  Laughed, "So then everyone was diving for that gun and then suddenly we heard,


"Nobody Move!" It was the police. But luckily I had actually been working with the police at that time about Gangs in Chinatown so they knew okay the Hung Ching jai are the white hats here and they arrested the other guys. But we were all thinking about the Police. How did you get here so fast? I mean we didn't call you."


"So it wasn't until we went to court that we heard the whole story. Those New York kids had parked their car on pine street and they had to rifles, 30 round clips and they had been walking down pine street with them. Somebody saw them and called the police. But for whatever reason, luckily they decided to put the big guns back in the car and not to go into Munch and Brunch with them. It was only then that we were scared. We had no idea what we had been up against. All from New York, and all Juveniles. Because back then, if you were a juvenile, you pretty much wouldn't go to jail even fi you got caught."