Waldoboro Voices 'Because the customer is always right'

Walk into Bernard and Marian De Lima’s Jade Express Chinese Restaurant on Route 1 and you’ll see a Christian cross saying, “For with God, nothing shall be impossible;” three golden cats and one white one to welcome patrons; a figurine of St. Joseph and another of the Virgin Mary, respectively Bernard’s and Marian’s patron saints; a bowl of rice symbolizing generosity because rice expands as it cooks; and a glass of water because in Asian culture, water is a continuous blessing.

The story of Jade Express begins in 1990 when the Catholic Church sent Bernard De Lima from the Philippines on a three-year ministry course in St. Stephen, New Brunswick. One day, a friend learned that a Chinese restaurant had opened on the other side of the border. The two crossed the bridge to try it out. The owner, Pepito Junpura, was from the Philippines, too! Bernard and Pepito became friends.

When Pepito moved his restaurant, Chinese Jade, to Waldoboro across from Moody’s Diner, he called Bernard to ask if he would help. If Pepito would take care of his green card application, Bernard was in. So, they went along, until 2008 when the economy slowed. Pepito now had his eye on Florida and invited Bernard to follow, but Bernard had put down roots here.

So, his friend suggested Bernard take over the restaurant, and the next year, Bernard opened Jade Express next to Spears farm stand, where it has been ever since.

One by one, Bernard brought family from the Philippines to join him; his wife, her mother, and his own mother, all of whom work in the restaurant; building Waldoboro’s Filipino community to a little more than his own family. With a state population hovering at 2,000 Filipinos, Bernard and his family can still indulge in the sounds and tastes of his homeland.

 

“We are a family business. My wife Marian do the cash register, and my mom and my mother-in-law, they help her and also with the chopping and shopping, too. My old high school classmate who I found on the Facebook living in New York, he now does the frying. I cook with the wok, my favorite, because it’s relaxing, and both hands are moving so you’re exercising, too.

“My mom was a fish vendor, and my dad was a fisherman. In the Philippines, when you say you are a fisherman or a fish vendor, it means you’re from a poor family – the opposite of here.

“Here, when you are a fisherman or a lobsterman, it means you have a big boat, and you make good money.

“I would say my childhood was typical. Like everyone in our village, we walked three or four miles from our house to the elementary school because there was no school bus in my area. In the Philippines, everyone starts studying English in second grade and we also start home economics. We learn to cook, and to clean houses and to sew and make clothes.

“So, when my boss invited me here to cook with him, I only had to learn Chinese cooking, which wasn’t hard. The memorizing all the combinations on the menu was the hardest. Like, learning that Number 28 is crab Rangoon with fantail shrimp, chicken fingers and fried rice – a very popular order here.

“I didn’t understand why Pepito was putting a restaurant in Waldoboro. There were no people. There weren’t much gas stations, and not much banks. Then I realized, there’s other small towns connected like Bremen, Friendship, Warren, and Jefferson where they don’t have a place to shop. So, they support us and the businesses do, too, like the banks and the Hannaford. In return, we buy from them. We don’t have a big enough kitchen to order wholesale anyway, so every morning, we go there to shop for our fresh vegetables.

“We feel welcomed here but sometimes, I feel the language is a barrier. A few customers, because we’re Asian, they will take advantage. They will request all kinds of things and say, ‘I want this one. I want that one. I want this one.’ Then you do that. Then when they get the food, they say, ‘No, this one. I don’t like it. And I don’t like that one. I don’t like this one.’ That’s a bad day. You cannot please them. They will write in Facebook, ‘I don’t want to go there anymore. Don’t go there.’

“You just try to follow the way they like it because the customer is always right. With 15 years here, we have a good reputation in Waldoboro. We have a good grade, too, almost four-something, and that’s because of the people of Waldoboro and the neighboring towns.

“For now, you cannot tell ahead about the economy, so I think it’s better to have a takeout like this because in the pandemic, we survived. We had customers that cannot even go to the bank and they were regular customers. They will ask us if they can get some food and pay us later. We didn’t even check their ID. ‘If you’re hungry, then come here, and we’ll give you some food.’

“We have many lobstermen that order here, and some of them, they could not go out and get lobster. They called here: ‘Hey, can we get some food first and pay you later?’ And we know them because they are a regular customer. We return this to them because they are a good customer.

“As long as I pay all my bills and meet my responsibilities, I am happy. To the people of Waldoboro, the people in the neighboring towns, and the landlord Betty Lou, who is like family, we give them thanks for supporting us.

“We work lots of hours here. Every day we shop at the Hannaford, and by 9 (a.m.), we are back at the restaurant chopping and prepping because we open at 11. Then, it’s customers all day until when we close at night, at 8. Once we get home, we have the kids, and we’re tired, but then, when we see them playing, and they’re healthy, that’s pretty good.

“The family and the business and working together – that is what give me hope.”