Fight interrupts dinner at Beijing

Several customers' meals were interrupted last night at the Beijing Restaurant on 37th and Spruce by a heated altercation between one of the owners and a customer. At 5:45 p.m., a man in tattered clothing entered the establishment and ordered soup which he wanted to eat in the restaurant, said store owner Mark Gendelman. Gendelman explained that when he told the man that he had to get the soup for take-out, the customer said, "The hell I will," and pushed his way past restaurant worker, Anna Chan. Gendelman said that he suspected that the man was not mentally sound. The customer, carrying a plastic bag with food in it, took a seat at a table in the back. Gendelman said that when he picked up the phone to call the police, the man "started tearing up the place." The customer smashed his bag of food down on the table, which then overturned, sending tea cups, bottles of soy sauce and hot-pepper containers crashing to the floor. "I just heard glass breaking. I didn't know what was going on," said College of General Studies student Arlyn Apollo, who was sitting in a booth a few feet from the customer's table. The man proceeded to run toward the front of the store where he assaulted Gendelman. "He knocked me down and tried to hit me," said Gendelman, who emerged from the scuffle with a scratch on his arm. "Here is a time I'm glad I didn't have a weapon in the store," added Gendelman. "I would have hurt him permanently." Many of the restaurant workers who witnessed the incident rushed to the owner's aid, but by the time they got to him, the customer had already fled the establishment. People in the restaurant at the time were frightened. A boy could be heard saying, "Daddy, I'm scared." "I thought he was going to kill someone," said Apollo, who watched the incident. Soon after the customer left the restaurant, he was arrested by University police. Gendelman said that nothing like that has ever happened at the restaurant during the five years he has been there. Despite the commotion, service was not disrupted for very long. In a matter of minutes, the table was put back in place. Beijing employee Ina Yeung said the commotion frightened her. "A lot of these people are walking around here in this neighborhood," Beijing employee Ina Yeung said. "It's not very safe."