The Woodland City Council honored Chicago Café as likely the oldest continuously operating Chinese restaurant in California and possibly even the United States during its Tuesday, May 21 meeting.

A city staff report explained that the 411 Main St. restaurant has operated in Woodland since at least 1910 and has recently enjoyed a surge in notoriety due to UC Davis researchers making this finding.

Mayor Tania Garcia-Cadena explained while presenting the proclamation to the Fong family that the city values and celebrates its local restaurants that play an important role in the social, cultural and economic fabric of the community.

“Three generations of the Fong family have operated the Chicago Café and dedicated their time, effort and resources to the Woodland community,” Garcia-Cadena emphasized. “The city of Woodland recognizes that the Chicago Café is an important symbol of Chinese-American resilience and culture.”

The goal of the historical research project published in January was to document the restaurant’s past and how such institutions reflect the Chinese American experience.

“Owned by three generations of the Fong family, the café has operated at least since 1910, according to the UC Davis research, or 1903, according to the Fongs and some tantalizing yet unverifiable mentions elsewhere,” the UC Davis website stated.

The website explained that the students researching the restaurant in the Yolo County archives, other libraries, online and through interviews could not nail down the 1903 date because city directories excluded Asian-owned businesses.

“The paper details how a ‘racist federal immigration regime’ kept Chinese immigrants from becoming citizens or outright banned them from immigrating,” the website highlighted. “Yet Chinese restaurants, conversely, also offered a ‘rare economic lifeline.’”

To read more from the study uncovering Chicago Café as likely the oldest Chinese restaurant in the country, visit papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4493301. 

Xavier Tafoya delivered a public comment during the council’s meeting highlighting his experience visiting the restaurant since he was a child.

“There was five brothers counting me and five sisters and we all went to the Chicago Café and Paul could never get our name straight,” he said regarding 75-year-old owner Paul Fong.

He recalled signing his siblings’ names to charge notes every time he visited the restaurant.

“One day my father had a stack of charge tickets me and my brother wrote and he goes, ‘What are these tickets?’” he stated. “Well, you said if you’re hungry go eat at the Chicago and he said, ‘Well I didn’t say go every day, go if you’re hungry.

“Paul had a real good ongoing relationship with me and my family and I’m very happy to speak on his behalf.”

Councilwoman Victoria Fernandez noted that she and her family would also frequently visit the restaurant.

“Your work in our community has been valued by many and your doors were open to all of us,” she emphasized. “There were places that didn’t open their doors to us who were Mexican so I want to thank you for that because you welcomed everyone into your restaurant and we felt… like part of the family. Thank you so much for being part of Woodland and for honoring all our residents with such hospitality.”