C-Fu Gourmet, the Chinese restaurant that introduced many East Valley diners to the concept of dim sum, has closed after 23 years in business.
The 9,000-square-foot restaurant was located on the southwest corner of Dobson and Warner in Chandler.
C-Fu Gourmet was opened in 1996 by Ron Lou, a former Arizona State football player who became the first Chinese-American to play in the NFL.
Although seafood dishes were the highlights of the menu, C-Fu was best-known for its popular dim sum service – rolling carts offering a variety of small-bite foods, sort of a smorgasbord on wheels.
The concept was so unknown in the Valley at the time that Lou was forced to invent Americanized names for some of the traditional dishes in order to get diners to try them.
In 2013, Lou launched a new concept, Angry Crab Shack, which has grown to eight locations, and eventually sold C-Fu Gourmet.
For the last two years under new ownership, C-Fu Gourmet had gone steadily downhill.
