SACRAMENTO, Calif. — To say Paul Fong’s restaurant goes back a few years might be putting it lightly.
“Restaurant here is 120 years old," Fong said. "We opened in 1903. I’ve been here 50 years.”
Fong added that he took the restaurant over from his father, whose parents opened the Chicago Café in the city of Woodland in Yolo County as Chinese people back then didn’t have a lot of options.
“They work in a restaurant, or on the railroad, or as a farmworker,” he said.
Fong runs the restaurant with his wife Nancy, and his place has now become a subject of research for one of their customers, UC Davis professor Jack Chin.
Chin said the restaurant is likely the oldest continuously running Chinese restaurant in the country, certainly in California, and that restaurants have played an important role in Chinese American history.
“1882 to 1965, there were racial restrictions on Asian immigration," said Chin, a professor of law. "But one of the ways you could come in was if you were a merchant, and so Chinese restaurants became a preferred method of immigration for Chinese people.”
Related Stories
- Disney California Adventure's food and wine festival returns
- Wendy's will start testing dynamic pricing on its menu in 2025, says it won't be used to raise menu prices
- Sushi delivered: Culinary venture Wafu Bento launching in OC
- California Health Department issues warning about molasses, jam sold in SoCal
The study of the restaurant along with historical regulations and statutes aimed at keeping Chinese people out is part of the Asian Exclusion Research Project lead by Chin he said will create a database for lawmakers, scholars and the like, when considering such things as new exclusionary policies.
“COVID brought out a lot of anti-Asian sentiment, anti-Chinese sentiment," Chin said. "A bunch of states have enacted laws that restrict the rights of Chinese people to own land. And I think that the reason that's happening is because of a lack of understanding of the history.”
Fong said he’s proud to be a big part of the Woodland history and said his customers are so much more than just patrons.
“All the people that come here, it’s like five or six generations, of people from Yolo County. It’s just like family,” Fong said.
It’s why Fong said even with the long hours, and only one day off a week [Thursday], he’s happy to know his restaurant’s legacy could help educate future generations.