April 25 • 2019 5
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H

appy You Chinese Restaurant 
speaks for itself. It is whole, 
sound and, like Clark’
s 
Wallabees or Total Eclipse of the Heart, 
cannot be improved upon. If it were a 
product of this era, it would be hap-
pYou and it would 
promise some indus-
try-disrupting life hack 
that would end up just 
being quinoa paste and 
a Magic Eye poster.
Happily for me, Alex 
and So Chu decided 
to open a restaurant 
in the waning days of 
the last century, when happiness was 
less about the instant gratification of 
handheld technology (excepting the 
length of one’
s Discman skip protec-
tion) and more about what David 
Brooks described last week as “
defeat-
ing self-sufficiency for a state of mutual 
dependence.
”
“By planting themselves in one 
neighborhood, one organization or one 
mission,
” Brooks argues, “
they earn 
trust. They have the freedom to make 
a lasting difference. It’
s the chains we 
choose that set us free.
”
When Alexis shared her parents’
 
retirement news online last month, I 
took solace in the continuity of cuisine 
with Chef Paul as the new owner. But 
at 20 plus years, Happy You may be my 
longest adult relationship. I needed clo-
sure. Also lunch.
Born in Hong Kong in 1951, Alex 
grew up swimming competitively and 
developing pictures in his home dark-
room. In 1971, the Chu family emi-
grated; his older sister stayed behind, 
ineligible to join them.
The addition of eight new residents 

still left Holbrook, Ariz., with fewer 
than 5,000 people. Holbrook — once 
“
the town too tough for women and 
churches,
” the seat of Navajo County 
and beneficiary of Chinese rail labor-
ers — had one Chinese restaurant, 
owned by Alex’
s uncle. 
After two years in Holbrook, 
Alex went into near-constant 
motion until his journey culminated in 
a Keego Harbor storefront. First, San 
Francisco, home to extended family. 
Then seven years on the road — work-
ing in Chinese restaurants and taking 
stock of the variations in quality and 
service — that led him to Michigan.
On his first trip back to Hong Kong, 
he reconnected with old family friends, 
including So.
They settled in Michigan and start-
ed a family, but Alex’
s drive kept him 
moving. Birmingham Carrie Lee’
s. 
Head chef at Carrie Lee’
s Lake Garden 
in Waterford. Peking House in Royal 
Oak. Then Manchu Wok, training and 
district management for 20 locations as 
far afield as Minnesota and Iowa.
The Tao of Alex, “Happy You,
” served 
as pledge and promise to customers 
and his family. He chose Keego Harbor 
to be close to home and designed the 
kitchen to be open — visible from 
the tables and even the sidewalk — to 
showcase his fresh, made-to-order fare.
Senior year of high school, Keego 
Harbor was about as far as I could get 
before my underdeveloped sense of 
direction would betray me and make 
me tarde for Señora Kulhavi’
s class. It 
might have been a journey of 10,000 
miles for Alex to develop his all-natural 
General Tsao recipe, but it took only a 
single step for me to surrender.
Happy You had everything, except a 

serviceable water pitcher, so I picked up 
a Brita during my semi-weekly sample 
smorgasbord at Costco. (Pour one out 
for Andover open lunch.) With her 
smile radiating from behind the count-
er, So reciprocated with a free lunch 
worth more than the gift.
It hardly seemed fair to limit the 
happy we to those seniors who could 
fit in my Saturn station wagon. Like 
most of my ventures since, the Wassify 
Weekly Friday Fried Rice delivery 
service subscribed to the Vaudeville 
school of business — we lost money on 
every sale but made it up on volume. 
The dividends were clear: lo mein 
liberation for freshmen whose pantries 
were suffering under the brutal Y2K 
Atkins regime. Three of our carbed-
up customers went on to work at the 
Happy You.
According to Waleed Brinjikji, 
now a radiologist at the Mayo Clinic, 
“Working there as busboy/waiter/fry 
boy/dishwasher/janitor/chicken cleaner 
in high school was a great experience 
and taught me so much about hard 
work … and … don’
t throw away the 
chicken feet!”
Just as Alex has shared his good for-
tune with those around him, I feel I can 
share my fortune, courtesy of cookie, 
with him: 
“You will continue to take chances 
and be glad you did.
” ■

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jewfro
The Pursuit of Happy You

letters

Ben Falik

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d in
serviceable water pitcher so I picked up

Alex and So Chu

Clarity on Torah Portion 
The Torah portion in the Jewish 
News is usually what I read first. 
Last week’
s, on ritual purity, of all 
things, Leviticus 14-16, was deep and 
thought-provoking. The writer, Rabbi 
Dan Horwitz, shows that the Torah’
s 
unearthly Temple rite statutes often 
work at cross-purposes with the moral 
commandments. It’
s a Torah mitzvah, 
a “
sacred connection opportunity,” as 
he puts it, to help bury the dead, for 

example, or be a mentsh — a good per-
son — to your spouse; but performing 
mitzvahs like that make one ritually 
“impure.” Ritual purity might not be 
so positive, he teaches. Ritual impurity 
might not be so negative. 
Clarity! The temple service is truly 
unearthly. We study it as a special 
subject, he says, to “impart lessons and 
values.” But then the rabbi hits us with 
the two “
scapegoats” of Yom Kippur.
No, Rabbi Horwitz, with all respect: 

God never commanded Jews to send a 
goat “to the demon Azazel.”
“
Azazel,” my handy Torah commen-
tary says, means, roughly, “
out of here” 
or “
gone.”
Rashi, the Midrash, the Talmud 
and Maimonides say it’
s a just a place 
name referring to “
a high peak” or a 
mountainous area. Leviticus 17:7, in 
the very next chapter, forbids paying 
homage of any kind to demons. It’
s 
mostly just the Biblical Documentary