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Personal Stories: The New Mexico Connection

The Story of Fremont's

Detail from a porcelain vase owned by the Tang Family. To see the vase, please click
here. Photo by T. Ocken.

Ms. Aimee Tang writes:

Fremont's Fine Foods, one of Albuquerque's oldest family-owned businesses, tells the story of the Tang Family and their migration from China to the United States. The Fremont's story began in 1904 and covered three generations.

Edward Gaw, the founder of Fremont's Fine Foods, left his town of Hoi Ping, China in 1904, when he was 15 years old. Traveling with his older brother, he landed in San Francisco in 1905. He quickly assumed his American first name, Edward. The immigration officials misinterpreted his name as "Gaw," and so it remained even though his family maintains the original surname, 鄧 ("Tang"), to this day. We don't know what brought the two young men to New Mexico, but the older brother soon passed away (in 1908) and was buried in Albuquerque.

In 1910 Edward traveled back to China to fulfill an arranged marriage to Kim Thin Wong. In March 1911, their first child and son, Chin Kwong, was born. Edward returned to Albuquerque but as U.S. law then required, he left his family in China. City records show that by 1914, Edward was listed as part owner of the Sanitary Store and Up-To-Date Restaurant at 917 2nd Street in Albuquerque. Tang family lore has Fremont's dating back to 1918. City records show a name change, to Fremont's Cash Grocery (at 217 Central Avenue) in 1920.

Edward sent money back to China to support his wife and visited again in the early 1920s. In 1922 his daughter was born in China, and his wife and children enjoyed a comfortable life as the Albuquerque business continued to grow.

In 1932, Edward created an Art Deco landmark in downtown Albuquerque, when Fremont's Grocery Co. opened with a grand flourish at 616 Central Avenue. Fremont's carried many fancy foods from big American cities and from Europe. Because of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, Edward was not allowed to purchase land. Instead, Fremont's could only lease space. Edward lived in a rented room across the street, in the famous Franciscan Hotel.

Edward sent his son to the University of Wisconsin to earn a degree in electrical engineering. Chin Kwong became Gene C. K. Tang and returned to Shanghai to marry Shui Wah Chang and work for General Electric. The couple had a girl and boy and had a prosperous life. Meanwhile, Edward Gaw's daughter married a Chinese-American G.I. and moved to the States in 1947.

After the end of World War II, as mainland China fell under communist control, many families left. Edward's wife came to the United States in 1950. In 1952, Gene managed to get to British-controlled Hong Kong. After two years of petitioning, his wife and children were permitted to visit him. The family abandoned all of its belongings in Shanghai, and in 1955 they traveled by ship to California. There, they re-joined Gene's family. Shui Wah became Ann S. W. Tang and the children assumed American names, Dorothy and Richard.

Gene and Ann began working at Fremont's. Gene managed the finances and the liquor department, and Ann proved to be an exceptional chef and designer of gift baskets. Dorothy and Richard started 5th grade at Zia Elementary School. They quickly learned English and the American way of life, and excelled academically.

Gene Tang in front of the Fremont's at 616 Central in 1958. At the time he managed
the liquor department.

Ann Tang in the Fremont's at 616 Central, about 1959. Note the Chinese ceramics for sale
in the display case. Photo courtesy of Amy Pan.

Gene took over control of Fremont's and in 1965 he moved the store to the brand-new Coronado Center. Many long-time Albuquerque residents still remember this location and its exotic foods, intriguing smells, and wares from the Orient. Richard Tang finished high school at Highland High, then went to college at UNM. There he met Mary Toledo of Jemez Pueblo. They married in 1970 and had a daughter (Aimee) and son (Daniel).

Richard and Mary became the owners of Fremont's Fine Foods in 1983. Mary made a career at Sandia National Laboratories, earned a Ph.D. in education from UNM, and served as a UNM regent from 1995 to 2001. Richard managed the family business and introduced the Fremont's Box Lunch. Countless business luncheons served Fremont's chicken salad sandwiches made with fresh-baked honey whole wheat bread, along with fresh fruit salads with poppy seed dressing and luscious chocolate mousse.

After more than three decades at the Coronado Center location, Fremont's received a plaque recognizing the store as the last business remaining from the mall's opening. Then, to everyone's surprise, the mall management gave Fremont's 30 days to vacate the premises so Gateway Computers could move in. Fremont's found a temporary home in the South Valley while a new North Valley location could be transformed from a dive bar to a specialty food shop. From 1998 to 2005, Fremont's loyal customers followed the business to its 4th Street and Ranchitos Road location. Here, the British grocery section replaced Asian foods as the most popular offering.

Richard and Mary passed Fremont's to the fourth generation of owners in 2005. Aimee Tang and her husband Jacob Rasmussen (from Odense, Denmark) moved the grocery store to The Courtyard at 1100 San Mateo Boulevard N.E., restoring a space formerly used by the Restaurant André. For the next five years, customers continued to appear and share stories covering years or even generations of shopping at Fremont's.

Daniel Tang earned his MFA from UNM and currently teaches art and shop at Valley High School. Aimee and Jacob had the family's usual son and daughter, Christian Emil (born in 2003) and Marisol (born in 2007). Today, the 3rd, 4th, and 5th generations of the American Tang clan still live in Albuquerque.

Fremont's and the Gaw-Tang family were proud to have survived the Chinese Exclusion Act, the Great Depression, World War II, the big box superstores, and the arrival of Amazon.com. The enterprise was unable to outlast the Great Recession, however, and in 2012 Fremont's delivered its last box lunch to another longtime Albuquerque family-owned company.

Today, 101 years after Edward Gaw started the family business, Fremont's is back as a technology consulting and software development enterprise. Fremont's still does special food orders for its Jolly Lolly Cakes™, Pod Pies™, and gourmet gift baskets, but that is just for old times' sake.

The Tang family at Fremont's in 2008.

The Tang family thanks Ty Bannerman for remembering Fremont's when writing Forgotten Albuquerque; Paul Secord for sharing historical information on Edward Gaw and Fremont's and for featuring Fremont's in his book Albuquerque Deco and Pueblo; Historic Albuquerque Inc. for recording the history of Fremont's; and David Phillips of the Maxwell Museum and Yolanda Dominguez of the UNM Foundation for bringing our story to you.