Bidding Louie’s a Fond Farewell

When students return in the fall seeking to drown the stress of a new semester in a bottle of beer, the face behind the counter of Louie’s Superette won’t be familiar.

Louie’s owner, Cheng-san Chen, who has won a place in students’ hearts for the past 18 years for his friendliness—and alcohol selection—says he will leave Louie’s in the hands of a new owner by the end of the month.

Chen signed the purchase agreement for his convenience store on Banks Street in late March but has not yet transferred its ownership officially because he is waiting for the City of Cambridge to approve of the store’s new manager.

The sale of the store comes after a turbulent year for Chen, who is 62.

Chen was the victim of armed robberies in January and March 2004. He says he was knocked unconscious with a gun during the second robbery.

In March 2004, the police penalized Chen for allegedly selling alcohol to minors. Chen, who says that alcohol accounts for half of his store’s sales, was denied a Sunday liquor license by the Cambridge Licensing Commission until this March and was forced to keep his store closed during last year’s Commencement Week.

Besides diminishing his sales, Chen says the accusations “really hurt my feelings.”

“I’m not that kind of person, I don’t do that on purpose,” he says.

But ever since the probation, Chen, who now keeps a stack of confiscated fake IDs behind the counter, says he has asked for two forms of identification from anyone attempting to buy alcohol.

He says his store endured its worst fiscal year yet in 2004 due to a crippling $150,000 drop in sales. Slower business forced Chen to close the store after several attempts to revive sales failed.

“Last year so many things happened, so I decided to have an earlier retirement. I’ve had enough—otherwise I would have stayed for four more years,” he says.

Chen says that he intends to spend much of his retirement relaxing and fixing up his Wellesley home.

“I don’t think I’m going to find another job. I think I’m entitled to retire,” he says. Grinning, he adds, “I plan to fix up my house in case students would like to visit.”

And Chen, whose two grown children live in New York, looks forward to a carefree life. “I don’t have a wife or girlfriend so I don’t have any responsibilities,” he says.

But Chen, gushing over an autograph of Romeo Dallaire, former force commander of the United Nations Mission to Rwanda and a fellow at Harvard’s Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at the Kennedy School of Government this year, says he will miss interacting with the small names on campus.

“This store has served tomorrow’s world leaders,” he says. “I see not just students—I see the future. These students have become like a family.”

Morgan S. Brown ’06, who calls Louie’s “very convenient for residents of the lower River Houses,” says that he and other students will miss Chen. “Hopefully the new owners will have the same attitude toward college life as he did,” Brown says.

Chen moved to the U.S. from Taiwan in 1967. He claims to hold a master’s degree in theoretical physics and a Ph.D in biophysics, both from the State University of New York. Before purchasing the Superette, he worked with computer storage systems for a digital equipment corporation for over 10 years.

—Staff writer Anna M. Friedman can be reached at amfriedm@fas.harvard.edu.