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Mike Zhao and his daughter, Lilly Zhao of Char Koon 1800. Courtesy Char Koon 1800

By Steve Wilder dotCANTON.com

Though she grew up around her father’s restaurant in Glastonbury, Char Koon 1800 owner/manager Lilly Zhao didn’t expect to be a restaurateur after graduating from Simmons College in Boston in May of 2008.

A finance and economics major at Simmons, Zhao, 24, worked briefly in customer service for TD Bank before taking a position in sales with Primerica, a financial services company. She was with Primerica for about a year, she says, before deciding the job, which included working alone much of the time, wasn’t for her.

Enter Mike Zhao, Lilly’s father, who wondered out loud whether his daughter, a graduate of Glastonbury High School, might be interested in running a restaurant.

“It was exciting,” Lilly recalls thinking about the idea, “but it was like, ‘Oh, wow.’ ”

“Oh, wow” turned into “OK,” and Mike Zhao, who opened Char Koon in Glastonbury 17 years ago, set out to find a place. “He never thought of coming to Canton,” Lilly says, “but when he saw the building, he liked it.”

The building, of course, is the 210-year-old structure at 144 Albany Turnpike (Route 44) that was home to Margaritas, the popular establishment that served Mexican food from 1981 until it closed in December of 2009.

Mike Zhao bought the property and began an extensive six-month renovation of the premises. At the same time, Lilly was brushing up on her restaurant skills in Middletown at Forbidden City, which, she says, is partly owned by her father.

Char Koon 1800, which features a variety of Asian cuisine, opened in Canton in mid-July of 2010. Six months later, Lilly is continuing to settle into her role — with help from her father — and likes what she is doing.

Char Koon 1800 at 144 Albany Turnpike (Route 44) in Canton. Photo: dotCANTON

“I’m learning a lot of stuff I didn’t learn in school,” she says. Specifically, she mentions the science of marketing. “I think I only took one course in marketing (in college),” she says. “I wish I had taken more.”

And, Lilly says she enjoys interacting with her customers and other “business people” she works with.

Lilly says strengthening its customer base remains a work in progress at Char Koon 1800. The dinner business had been doing nicely — particularly on weekends — until the holidays, she says. It slumped a bit then, but it has bounced back. Takeout business for both lunch and dinner is growing, according to Lilly.

Finding a consistent sit-down lunch crowd has been the biggest challenge, but Lilly says she’s being more aggressive in her marketing in an attempt to lure a larger number of midday customers. She says the economy could be a factor for the sluggishness, and, she says, “a lot of people out there still don’t know we’re here.” Others have told her that Char Koon 1800 looks “fancy,” so they suspect the “prices must be high.”

Lilly says items on the lunch menu range in price from $7.95 to $10.95, and that dinner entrees range from $10.95 to $16.95.

As she continues to move Char Koon 1800 forward, Lilly has been getting plenty of input from her father. “We talk about the business every single day,” she says. “He has a lot of ideas.”

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