By Kate Slavens
Photo by Jordan Barclay

Jimmy Jeng's arrival in Evansville was not the beginning of a typical success story. "I had $40 in my pocket, no credit card, no car," he recalls. But Jeng had a plan: to open a Chinese restaurant on the East Side.

The odds were decidedly against him. Jeng had left behind his wife and two sons in Illinois, so he could launch the business here, located at a site where five other restaurants had failed. To save money, he slept on the floor of the restaurant for the first few months and then moved into a one-bedroom apartment he shared with a half-dozen other men. Jeng would walk to and from work each day.

To make matters worse, business was slow. With no money to advertise, Jeng had few customers coming to the restaurant. Within months, family and friends pleaded with him to close the business and return to his home in Chicago. It was, he admits, an incredibly low period for him, both emotionally and financially.

That was seven years ago. Today, Jimmy Jeng's Szechwan Chinese Restaurant in Eastland Place does booming business, attracting lunchtime and dinner crowds by offering a wide variety of unique dishes mastered by Jeng, a Taiwanese native whose ancestors hailed from the Szechwan province in mainland China.

His recipe for success? A combination of hard work, sheer determination, good food, great service, and a partnership with a group of retired Evansville businessmen committed to helping Jeng succeed.