Early Chinese Restaurants in Chicago (w/pics)

This is a slightly modified version, now with pictures of postcards from my collection, of a couple posts I contributed to a thread in the Events category. I thought it might be of wider interest so decided to put the updated version here. Note that it was primarily intended as a response to some comments of Mike G and Cathy2 and is not at all a comprehensive discussion of early Chinese restaurants in Chicago.

The number of Chinese restaurants in Chicago exploded in the very late 19th/very early 20th centuries. According to a January 1902 article in the Chicago Daily Tribune, ". . . now there are twenty times more Chinese restaurants in Chicago than when Moy began [somewhat after the Exposition] . . ." Many of these places were around Clark & Van Buren but they weren't confined to that enclave. Even in the very earliest years of the 20th century there were plenty in the Vice District, a bit east of the current Chinatown: "There is a renaissance in chop suey in Twenty-second street, between Wabash avenue and Clark street." This was the neighborhood of the Everleigh Club, Four Deuces and Colosimo's.

One well-known establishment, King Yen Lo at Clark & Van Buren, occupied the upper floor of Hinky Dink Kenna's saloon in the early 20th century.

King Yen Lo (postmarked 1909)


I think many of the earliest Chinese restaurants around Clark & Van Buren (and elsewhere) were quite inexpensive. The 1902 Tribune article notes they competed successfully with the cheapest American lunchrooms and were patronized by actors and actresses, policemen, and reporters. The area around Clark & Van Buren wasn't particularly savory what with all the gambling rooms, opium dens and brothels. The Standard Guide to Chicago for the Year 1892 says of the area, "Respectable people are not in much danger down here, for the very good reason that respectable people are seldom to be found loitering around this neighborhood."

There was also strip of more upscale Chinese restaurants in the north Loop in the early 20th century. Among the earliest was King Joy Lo which opened on Randolph in 1906 but it definitely wasn't the first on that street. I believe these places were patronized mainly by non-Chinese theater goers.

King Joy Lo, New Year's Eve, 1906


In general the Chinese restaurants on Randolph Street appealed to a higher-class clientele. My impression is that King Joy Lo was the first to up the ante with its elaborate interior and live orchestra. I'm sure this place wasn't cheap. For several decades there seemed to be an escalation of elaborateness with each new restaurant trying to outdo its competition. For me, the culmination of the Chinese Restaurant Wars was Hoe Sai Gai with its spectacular art deco interior.

Hoe Sai Gai, Modern Room


Hoe Sai Gai, Ming Room


Won Kow


Won Kow is the oldest surviving Chinese restaurant in Chinatown (1927). It's better than nothing but I truly regret never having a chance to have a drink in the Ming Room at Hoe Sai Gai. It's painful to think about all the other great Chinese restaurants (not to mention the Polynesian places!) that we've lost.

Rene,

When did Hoe Sai Gai close? Did it survive into the '50s or '60's? I think I might have gone there as a child, but maybe not.

This site says it was torn down for the "Chicago City Hall" (since the City-County Building was built in 1911, this surely means Daley Plaza/the Daley Center). Another casualty in the same block was Henrici's. Anyway, it could easily have survived into the early 60s (Daley Center was completed in 1965); it's listed among recommended restaurants in Chicago Confidential in 1950.

Thanks for the great post!

Those Hoe Sai Gai rooms were stunning. Who designed those rooms?

happy_stomach wrote:Those Hoe Sai Gai rooms were stunning. Who designed those rooms?

They were designed by L Byron Fanselow. Unfortunately I can't find much more information on him (although I didn't try very hard). I think Hoe Sai Gai opened soon after the repeal of prohibition and was "modernized" at a cost of $60,000 in 1937.

Mike G wrote:This site says it was torn down for the "Chicago City Hall" (since the City-County Building was built in 1911, this surely means Daley Plaza/the Daley Center). Another casualty in the same block was Henrici's. Anyway, it could easily have survived into the early 60s (Daley Center was completed in 1965); it's listed among recommended restaurants in Chicago Confidential in 1950.

That's a cool site I wasn't familiar with before. Thanks. In agreement with what you said, from print sources I'm able to say Hoe Sai Gai was in business in late 1961 but was demolished to make way for the Civic Center soon after. Hoe Sai Gai lived on, in a way. In 1966 George Tan, former manager of Hoe Sai Gai, renamed his Hung Fa Village on Wabash to honor the fallen restaurant.

Thanks, ReneG, for the postcard idea. I was able to turn up a photo of Yuen Faung Lo, aka John's Place (later known as John's #1 Son) in Minneapolis, the site of my very first Chinese-American meal ca. 1963. The decor in the 1915 postcard linked below looks a lot like what I remember - the inlaid tables in particular made an impression on me. It also looks a great deal like the picture from the postcard postmarked 1909 of King Yen Lo that you posted.

http://collections.mnhs.org/visualresou ... Type=Basic

Random googling turned up a play written recently by a Minnesota playwright, Jeany Park, about the life of Liang May Seen, the wife of the original owner of John's Place, Mr. Woo Lee Sing. The link below includes information about the restaurant and the Woo family. I am delighted that Liang May Seen's story has been told and her endurance honored.

http://www.aapress.com/artsnews.php?sub ... m=&ucat=6&

This post triggered some memories and new research:

There was a restaurant on Woodlawn and 53rd, embedded in the west wall of the Kimbark Plaza mall, called "Moy's Kitchen." I was always told that it had existed in some form, in one location or another, since the Columbian Exposition, with the name being handed down. It seems to have closed (I see mention of one on South State now).

There was another venerably mediocre Cantonese joint on 53rd street near Lake Park called "Far East Kitchen," which had to have been there for 30 years. I have just noticed that Noodles, Etc. (pan-Asian) has closed their original location down the street and is opening a new restaurant, "Chant," in the Far East Kitchen space:

http://www.noodlesetc.com/
http://www.noodlesetc.com/chant/index.html

I haven't noticed this in the comings / goings, so I'll keep any news or updates coming in that thread.

For those who are interested in Chinese-American food history and early Chicago restaurants, the Chinese-American Museum of Chicago has some good information on its Web site, including more postcards from early 20th-century restaurants here.

Thanks for the link, LAZ.

The page includes a link to a Monica Eng interview with two Chinese Food experts.

In my never-ending quest to be on top of trends, I noted this:

Q. So what's the next big Chinese cuisine that will hit America?

Bronson: I think it will be Hangzhou cuisine, also known as Zhejiang cuisine. It's from the province where Shanghai is, and it's considered the greatest of all Chinese cuisines. Plus, most of the guys running China come from there. You have things like beggar's chicken wrapped in mud, lots of freshwater crab and freshwater shrimp cooked in chrysanthemums and others cooked in a wine sauce.

Do we have any places that serve this kind of food in Chicago?

(cf. this LTH thread about a Chicago Cultural Center presentation by the interview subjects)