EAST MARLBOROUGH – Technology at its best provides solutions, not just profits.
At GuGu Asian Table, delivering quality food is more important than profit, said Tony Liu, who owns the business with his wife, Suki Liu.
She agreed.
“Making money is not the top priority, serving customers is the top priority,” Suki said.
Still, with inflation approaching 9%, quality food is more expensive than ever, at least for the past 40 years. Additionally, there is a persistent shortage of staff in the hospitality industry across North America, of which restaurants are at the heart. Last Christmas, Tony and Suki bucked the trend by bringing in the robot Bella.
Bella can act as several human waiters, bringing hot and cold dishes to the table all by herself. She can even sing the “Happy Birthday” song.
BellaBot was designed by Pudu, Georgia. The BellaBot robot waitress starts at $15,000. However, the rewards pay off.
Besides doing the work of many servers at the same time, the kids love the thrill of watching the machines, robots, Bella deliver meals and sing “Happy Birthday” to them.
American dream
Tony and Suki are neighbors who grew up in Fujian, China, met as young adults and fell in love. The couple immigrated to the United States in 1995.
The duo moved to Kennett Square from New York City a decade ago to open Lily Asian Cuisine, their first restaurant in the hospitality industry.
“Everyone is so nice to us, like family,” Suki said of the community.
Then in 2021, Tony and Suki chose to put more of their hopes and dreams into the community, opening GuGu, a restaurant serving fine Asian cuisine in a formal setting, just off Longwood Gardens on Highway 1.
Lily and GuGu is open 7 days a week. Each institution is closed for one day each year on Thanksgiving.
Cuckoo is a symbol of “family” in Chinese, specifically translated as “sister” and “aunt”.
Together they employ 20 people at the two sites, including their two daughters.
“It’s a great community,” Suki said.
As a chef and artist, Tony is dedicated to bringing exquisite taste to the food he prepares. The combination of the various elements in any given dish, coupled with presentation, equates to a unique tasting experience.
Not only on Lily and GuGu’s menu, but now in the new restaurant, Tony’s artistic and refined taste is clearly expressed through vision – the restaurant’s ambience includes walls full of hand-crafted oak panels and stone.
Some of GuGu’s most popular dishes include Chilean sea bass, Japanese fish boxes, homemade soups featuring local produce, and a range of specialty sushi. The restaurant serves some of the best sushi in the world, using Omakase freshly flown in from Japan.
