New Japan Inn

Much overlooked, but much loved(at least by the s/o and I) after 20 years New Japan Inn on the Gold Coast has closed its bamboo doors. I used to see the wizened, diminuitive hostess shopping at the farmer's market. She and her husband will be missed.

Christopher Gordon wrote:Much overlooked, but much loved(at least by the s/o and I) after 20 years New Japan Inn on the Gold Coast has closed its bamboo doors. I used to see the wizened, diminuitive hostess shopping at the farmer's market. She and her husband will be missed.

Is that at all related to the also excellent New Japan, 1322 Chicago Ave., Evanston - which is also family run and has been around a long time?

I have no idea. Where am I going to get my Japanese curry now that NJI is closed?

nr706 wrote:Is that at all related to the also excellent New Japan, 1322 Chicago Ave., Evanston - which is also family run and has been around a long time?

The last time I was there about a year and a half ago, I thought that the elderly man and his wife were no longer the owners? I know that the husband was experiencing some health problems (heart related)...

New Japan was there when I moved to Chicago in 1967, so it was much older than 20 years. The area around Clark and Division had a fair number of Japanese businesses back then although most had already moved north on Clark to the stretch between Belmont and Addison with some spillover on Belmont. In many cases Japanese businesses replaced Swedish ones moving further north.

I must be misremembering a wall-posted Tribune accolade as per the twenty years bit. There's a hidden history of Chicago in those Japanese dives of yesteryear; reporters, hustlers, junkies, hoods.

Maybe the 20 years is the Evanston location?

After the closure of the camps at the end of WWII, Nissei (second generation Japanese Americans) moved to Chicago around Clark and Division and followed Clark Street north to Belmont, to Uptown and finally suburbia in the 60s. The Buddhist Temple of Chicago (BTC) in Uptown was originally located in Hyde Park. The Quakers helped with the relocation after the war.

My dad used to take me there when i was little (5 or 6) I LOVED their yakisoba w/ BBQ. I have never found it anywhere as good.

They were amazed I could use chopsticks and would give me free soda...

I'll miss that place.