Oldest Vietnamese restaurant in Chicago ??

I have been in love with Vietnamese food, especially from the old Imperial capital of Hue, since the mid-fifties. In Paris of course, until the mid 70s, I had no problems to find authentic Vietnamese cuisine in many restaurants owned by Vietnamese families who emigrated there after 1945 when the French lost most of their Indochinese "colonies''. But over the last 30 years most of the old first generation French-Vietnamese restaurant owners and cooks have passed away or retired, and their children or grand-children are not as gifted at the stove, or have sold the family restaurant to pursue other activities.
When I arrived in Chicago in January of 1970, one of my first tasks was to locate a good Vietnamese restaurant. I thought that many refugees from the 2nd Vietnam war would have open restaurants here. But it proved not to be the case, at least in the Midwest. I had to wait until the late 1970's when a French colleague of mine, of Vietnamese descent, took me to a place on N. Sheridan, somewhere halfway between Lawrence and Argyle, where the food was sort of decent. Problem is: I do not remember the name of this restaurant, which was closed about 10 years ago. Does any LTH er (René G probably) would have any clue about the name of this Vietnamese restaurant that, 45 years ago, may have been the first of his kind in Chicago?

It sounds like you may have Pasteur in mind which was for many years just north or Lawrence. If that is the restaurant you had in mind, you might be pleased to know that they reopened a couple of years ago at 5525 N. Broadway. I have not been there, but I believe there have been some other reports on LTH on the current version of Pasteur.

Thank you for your answer but infortunately I was not thinking of either the old Pasteur at the corner of Lawrence and Sheridan, or the new one on Broadway. Actually I went there often and knew the owners.
The restaurant I am thinking of was on Sheridan and existed several years before Pasteur.

Not the place you are looking for but had a Vietnamese restaurant name question too.

On the corner of State and Kinzie in the early to mid 90's...what was that place's name? I think I have the decade correct though.

Mekong on the SE corner of Broadway & Argyle (Tank Noodle's digs now?) was there as early as 1985. So was Hue, on Argyle nearer to the 'L' station. And I am pretty sure that Pasteur (farther north on Broadway?) was around then as well.

Mekong was my first foray into Vietnamese food, and sometimes your first is your best. It was certainly the cheapest. Lunch special, listen to this: a cup of asparagus/pollock chicken-broth-based soup, lemongrass chicken with that great oil-based sauce on a bed of romaine lettuce, with a skinny egg roll on the side. Steaming bowl of somewhat-sticky rice, and an entire pot of jasmine tea for $2.95. Incredible.

I went to both Hue, that I liked, and Mekong, both on Argyle and you are right that both were there in themid 80's.
But the one I am thinking on was on Sheridan and it was in the seventies.

google and tribune to the rescue...it was 1980's!

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1986 ... hrimp-thai

alain40 wrote:I had to wait until the late 1970's when a French colleague of mine, of Vietnamese descent, took me to a place on N. Sheridan, somewhere halfway between Lawrence and Argyle, where the food was sort of decent. Problem is: I do not remember the name of this restaurant, which was closed about 10 years ago.

I was away from Chicago when Vietnamese restaurants began opening, but if the place was around until about a decade ago, I ought to remember it. Could you be thinking of Ha Mien? It was in a now-demolished building on the west side of Sheridan between Ainslie & Argyle. I wasn't aware Ha Mien was so old, but that's all I can come up with.

We moved into the Uptown neighborhood in '83, not long after it established its Vietnamese identity. Mekong and Ha Mien were there in the early days, but I can't for the life of me remember anything before the 1980's.

What a relief...
Once again thank you Rene G for your fabulous memory. The restaurant I was trying to remember the name of was Ha Mien. Today on my way to downtown after my weekly lunch at Nha Hang Vietnam I drove slowly down Sheridan and thought I recognized the spot that nowadays as you rightly said is a demolished building. I believe that at one point, many years ago, Ha Mien relocated somewhere else, but I am not that sure. My memory is not as precise as yours anymore. According to my half demolished but still precious Chicago Magazine Guide to Chicago (published in 1983) Ha Mien was located at 4944 N. Sheridan.
In those days (late 70s early 80s) I also enjoyed very tasty lunches at the grubby but good Saigon at 1104 W. Argyle. And down the street at 1020 W. Argyle I really enjoyed the Laotian dishes (besides the traditional Vietnamese fare) of Nhu Hoa Café. It offered the best Nems (Cha gio) in that district.

spinynorman99 wrote:We moved into the Uptown neighborhood in '83, not long after it established its Vietnamese identity. Mekong and Ha Mien were there in the early days, but I can't for the life of me remember anything before the 1980's.

I wasn't in Chicago for most of this period, so don't have much firsthand knowledge. The little information I found on Chicago's earliest Vietnamese restaurants suggests they started opening in the late '70s (but clearly the pace picked up in the early '80s). From a 1986 newspaper article: "Vietnamese restaurants made their Chicago debut most recently, about eight years ago. The first was the Saigon Cafe on Argyle Street, which has since changed hands and been renamed the Kim Hoa." While trying to pin down names and dates, I stumbled on a surprising 1976 mention of "an extensive Vietnamese menu" at a small Thai restaurant in Uptown. So perhaps New Siam at 1050 W Argyle was Chicago's first significant Vietnamese restaurant. I have to guess the place didn't last very long (and/or didn't get much publicity), because I was fairly obsessed with Thai restaurants around this time and surely would have visited had I known about it.

alain40 wrote:What a relief...
Once again thank you Rene G for your fabulous memory. The restaurant I was trying to remember the name of was Ha Mien. Today on my way to downtown after my weekly lunch at Nha Hang Vietnam I drove slowly down Sheridan and thought I recognized the spot that nowadays as you rightly said is a demolished building. I believe that at one point, many years ago, Ha Mien relocated somewhere else, but I am not that sure. My memory is not as precise as yours anymore. According to my half demolished but still precious Chicago Magazine Guide to Chicago (published in 1983) Ha Mien was located at 4944 N. Sheridan.
In those days (late 70s early 80s) I also enjoyed very tasty lunches at the grubby but good Saigon at 1104 W. Argyle. And down the street at 1020 W. Argyle I really enjoyed the Laotian dishes (besides the traditional Vietnamese fare) of Nhu Hoa Café. It offered the best Nems (Cha gio) in that district.

Thanks, that was a fun topic to look into. Somehow my memory seems significantly improved since the introduction of Google. I didn't realize Ha Mien was once at 4944 N Sheridan (that would be the large building on the southwest corner of Argyle & Sheridan), but my time in Chicago barely overlapped with their early years. I only learned of the restaurant in the late '80s or early '90s, and by that time it was at 4920 N Sheridan. You can see an old photo here, courtesy of Yelp).

I, too, miss Nhu Hoa, once my favorite Vietnamese restaurant (not to mention the Lao menu). When searching this board, I came across the surprising mention that Nhu Hoa and Ha Mien were owned by the same person! I have a feeling at some point Ha Mien changed hands, because the names of the original owner of Ha Mien and the owner of Nhu Hoa were different.

My favorite back then was Mimosa Cafe @ Grand & Harlem. After a stint in Singapore in the mid 80's, the Vietnamese there and Thai @ Arun's was the closest I could come to authentic. I still have dreams of some of their dishes - and of Arun's full scale dinner for $10....

Nhu Hoa Café was the first place I ever tried Vietnamese food back in 1992. One of my college friends who is Vietnamese introduced me to the cuisine and Nhu Hoa was her go-to restaurant. It became my go-to place as well until it closed. I remember my first bowl of Pho consisted of noodles that looked similar to the "glass" noodles used in Jap Chae, rather than the traditional rice noodles. I've yet to encounter any other restaurant that uses these noodles. Thanks for the history lesson!

stoutisgoodfood wrote:My favorite back then was Mimosa Cafe @ Grand & Harlem. After a stint in Singapore in the mid 80's, the Vietnamese there and Thai @ Arun's was the closest I could come to authentic. I still have dreams of some of their dishes - and of Arun's full scale dinner for $10....

@stoutisgoodfood: I was randomly searching my parents old restaurant here on LTH, and am glad to see someone mention Mimosa Cafe. Such kind words about authenticity; I was lucky enough to grow up eating all the great dishes from my parents.

If you're interested, you can check out the community arts, food, design organization that I co-founded (www.axislab.org) as we are documenting the food, stories, and histories of the Vietnamese in not only on Argyle, but in the Chicagoland area through our Cook Book + Archive project that was recently funded. We will be highlighting my parents (who owned Mimosa Cafe), several of the old owners of long gone restaurants in Chicago (several owned by my parents' friends, who are still in the area), as well as more recent business owners.

We also host Vietnamese pop-up events, where we cook and also invite folks to cook. I have been hoping to have my parents cook a pop-up in the near future. You can taste Mimosa Cafe once again if we do. All the best!

Hac

Hac - That is so wonderful to hear! I pray Sonny and Chan are doing well? I lived just down the street from the Harlem outpost - in fact, I was the person that suggested that location to them when your mom told me they were looking to move from Grand (it was a recently closed Burger King). My wife and I still reminisce about all the wonderful meals we ate there (which was often). They had a pork dish with a brown gravy that I still dream about....

Please tell them that Ralph says hello and we would love to come to one of the pop ups to see them again!

We were also frequent visitors of Mimosa Cafe. My parents LOVED the place. They still talk about it all the time. When I was a wee, wee, lad, the owners made me a sweet dessert drink. My dad claims it was a different flavor, but I remember it tasting almost like bubble gum. It was thick and pinkish. The owners watched us all take a sip to try it, and laughed with us because they knew we probably never had anything like it before. We used to go there at least twice a month. My parents craved that place.