Possession Taken
Four accounts of why the cream puff window closed. None mentions the lease that expired in 2005.
Emperor's Garden sold cream puffs through a window in Chinatown for seventy cents. In July the Commonwealth went to the Federal Court to wind the company up. By late August it had consented to the application being dismissed. Somewhere in between, the landlord changed the locks. The family has now given four accounts of why. The register has given one.
The Window
The cream puffs came out of a window on the corner of Hay and Dixon, a few metres from the Chinatown gates, and they cost seventy cents. On a good night the queue ran down the footpath. Emperor's Garden Pty Ltd was registered on 14 August 1978, the restaurant opened the following year, and for forty-seven years the window did what it did.
Stanley Yee was appointed a Medal of the Order of Australia in the Queen's Birthday list of 11 June 2007, for service to the Chinese community through the hospitality industry, to aged care through administrative roles in nursing homes, and to the support of cancer research organisations.
On or about Sunday 2 August 2026 the window stopped. A sign went up at 98-100 Hay Street saying the premises "has been lawfully re-entered and possession taken". It directed employees to their employer, customers to the owners of the restaurant, and anyone wanting their property back to the law firm Mills Oakley.
Mills Oakley declined to say who its client was.
As at 1 October 2026 the shop has not reopened.
The Accounts
In the two months since, four explanations have been offered. They are worth setting out in order, because each one was given by somebody closer to it than the last.