Pekin Noodle Parlor

Pekin Noodle Parlor (built 1909) is the oldest known continuously operating Chinese restaurant in the United States, located in Butte, Montana. The restaurant was founded in its current location in 1911 by Hum Yow and Tam Kwong Yee.[1] Along with the Wah Chong Tai Company mercantile building (1891) and the Mai Wah Noodle Parlor (1909), the Pekin Noodle Parlor represents one of the last surviving properties from the original Chinatown neighborhood in the Butte–Anaconda Historic District.[2]

Pekin Noodle Parlor
Pekin Noodle Parlor in 1979
Location within Montana
Restaurant information
Established1911 (1911)
Owner(s)Jerry Tam and Danny Wong (Ding Kuen Tam)
Food typeAmerican Chinese cuisine
Street address117 South Main Street
CityButte
StateMontana
Postal/ZIP Code59701
CountryUnited States
Coordinates46°00′42″N 112°32′09″W

Background
Main articles: History of Butte, Montana and Chinese Exclusion Act

Placer gold mining in the late 19th century brought Chinese immigrants to Butte to work the mines. However, anti-Chinese sentiment stoked by labor unions later forced the Chinese out of the mining industry.[3] They eventually settled in Uptown Butte in the 1880s, and opened businesses in a Chinatown neighborhood bordered by West Galena Street in the North, South Main Street in the East, West Mercury Street in the South, and Colorado Street in the West. "China Alley" became a thriving community which may have reached a population of 600 at its height.[4][5]

After labor unions organized a sustained campaign of major boycotts of Butte’s Chinatown lasting many years in the late 1890s, and in spite of attorney Wilbur F. Sanders successfully defending the Chinese people of Butte in Hum Fay, et al. v. Baldwin, also known as the Chinese Boycott Case,[3] the majority of Chinese people left Butte. By 1940, only 92 remained.[4]

History

The Tam family left their home in Guangzhou and emigrated to Montana in the 1860s. The elder Tam found work shipping supplies to Chinese communities on the west coast, while his son made his way to Butte in the 1890s and founded the Quong Fong Laundry, which continued serving the community for another fifty years at its South Arizona Street location.[6]

Hum Yow, a close Tam family relative and California-born, first-generation Chinese, originally started Pekin Noodle Parlor on West Mercury Street. It moved in 1911 to the second floor of a brick building on South Main Street near the corner of West Galena. It was built by architect G. E. DeSnell, designed for Butte attorney F. T. McBride, and completed in 1909.[3][7] Family relatives Hum Yow and Tam Kwong Yee soon established themselves as businessmen at the new location in Uptown Butte.[6]

Archivists note that when the restaurant first opened, "it catered to a diverse clientele of miners, theater-goers, and wealthy citizens. Then, as now, the menu featured Chinese American classics like chow mein, chop suey, and egg foo young."[8] The restaurant offered a wide variety of dishes on its menu, but customers preferred their wet noodles (yaka mein) and chop suey. Pekin Noodle Parlor also offered takeout and delivery.[9] The restaurant installed their first sign in 1916 and added neon some time later. Neon signs became popular after World War I and were used to attract customers.[10]

Ding Kuen Tam, the grandson of Tam Kwong Lee, left China and came to the U.S. in 1947. He became known as Danny Wong and took over the restaurant business after a few years.[6]

Layout and design

Patrons enter the second floor restaurant from the ground floor on South Main Street, walking up a flight of stairs to a door on the left. The door opens into a hallway with salmon-orange colored beadboard partitions separating 17 eating rooms and booths on either side with privacy curtains for each room. The dining tables and chairs in each room date back to 1916. The central hallway is lined with Chinese lanterns hanging from the ceiling. Servers deliver food to each booth with metal carts.[5][11]

The original design, for the first 50 years, was based on a light lime green color scheme with dark green velveteen curtains. It was repainted to its current orange color after the owner read an article in Bon Appetit magazine that said "salmon color whets people's appetites".[11]

  • The exterior of the restaurant in 2020
  • The menu as of November 2020

References
  1. Fawcett, Kirstin (November 15, 2016). "The Delicious History of America's Oldest Chinese-American Restaurant". Mental Floss. Retrieved June 21, 2020.
  2. Butte--Anaconda Historic District. National Register of Historic Places. 1966.
  3. National Park Service. Butte-Anaconda Historic District, Montana. NPS. Retrieved June 21, 2020.
  4. Schneider, Carrie (Summer, 2004). “Remembering Butte's Chinatown”. Montana: The Magazine of Western History. Montana Historical Society. 54 (2): 67-69.
  5. Kentucky, Ed (January 5, 2016). "At the Pekin Noodle Parlor in Butte, history’s on the menu". KPAX. Retrieved June 21, 2020.
  6. Baucus, Max (2011). "Recognizing the Peking Noodle Parlor". Congressional Record. USGPO. pp. 9877-9878. Retrieved June 22, 2020.
  7. Gibson, Richard (November 22, 2013). "Pekin Noodle Parlor (117 S Main Street)". Butte-Anaconda National Historic Landmark District. Retrieved June 21, 2020.
  8. Jack, Meghan E. (Spring 2020). "Exhibit Review (Chow: Making the Chinese American Restaurant)". The Journal of American Folklore. University of Illinois Press. 133 (528): 249-251.
  9. Hazlett 2013, p. 24
  10. Hazlett 2013, p. 31
  11. McCumber, David (March 1, 2020). "A tradition of hospitality: Pekin Noodle Parlor is a James Beard semifinalist". Montana Standard. Retrieved June 21, 2020.

Further reading
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