Pekin Noodle Parlor (built 1909) was a long-operating Chinese restaurant located in Butte, Montana. The restaurant was founded in 1911 at the 117 South Main Street location by Hum Yow and Tam Kwong Yee.Fawcett, Kirstin (November 15, 2016). "The Delicious History of America's Oldest Chinese-American Restaurant" . Mental Floss. Retrieved June 21, 2020.
Along with the Wah Chong Tai Company mercantile building (1891) and the Mai Wah Noodle Parlor (1909), the Pekin Noodle Parlor was one of the last surviving properties from the original Chinatown neighborhood in the Butte–Anaconda Historic District.Butte--Anaconda Historic District . National Register of Historic Places. 1966.
The restaurant was named an American Classic by the James Beard Foundation in 2023. After operating for 115 years, the owners announced the restaurant's closure in 2026 due to economic pressures.
Background
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.National Park Service. Butte-Anaconda Historic District, Montana . NPS. Retrieved June 21, 2020. 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.Schneider, Carrie (Summer, 2004). "Remembering Butte's Chinatown". Montana: The Magazine of Western History. Montana Historical Society. 54 (2): 67-69.Kentucky, Ed (January 5, 2016). "At the Pekin Noodle Parlor in Butte, history's on the menu". KPAX. Retrieved June 21, 2020.
Even though attorney Wilbur F. Sanders successfully defended the Chinese people of Butte in Hum Fay, et al. v. Baldwin (also known as the Chinese Boycott Case), the majority of Chinese people left Butte after labor unions organized a sustained campaign of major boycotts of Butte's Chinatown lasting many years in the late 1890s. By 1940, only 92 Chinese people remained.
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,Baucus, Max (2011). "Recognizing the Peking Noodle Parlor" . Congressional Record. USGPO. pp. 9877-9878. Retrieved June 22, 2020. as well as a spice import and export business.
Hum Yow, a 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.Gibson, Richard (November 22, 2013). "Pekin Noodle Parlor (117 S Main Street)" . Butte-Anaconda National Historic Landmark District. Retrieved June 21, 2020. Family relatives Hum Yow and Tam Kwong Yee soon established themselves as businessmen at the new location in Uptown Butte.
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."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. 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.Hazlett, Kehli Kankelborg (2013)."The Foodways of Butte, Montana: Food and culture in an industrial American City" . Montana Technological University. Thesis. p. 24, 31. 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.
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 purchased the business from its founder, his great-uncle Hum Yow, when he retired. Wong ran the establishment for more than six decades with his wife, Sharon Chu.Fawcett, Kirstin (November 15, 2016). "The Delicious History of America's Oldest Chinese-American Restaurant" . Mental Floss. Retrieved July 6, 2021. Chu died in 2014 and Wong died in 2020. Their son Jerry Tam most recently ran the restaurant and said his father's immigration story was that of the American Dream.
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.McCumber, David (March 1, 2020). "A tradition of hospitality: Pekin Noodle Parlor is a James Beard semifinalist" . Montana Standard. Retrieved June 21, 2020. 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 a "salmon color whets people's appetites". The first level was at one point an herbal shop and the sub-level hosted illegal gaming.
References
Further reading Pentilla, Annie (November 26, 2016). "Butte's Pekin restaurant featured in NYC exhibit". Associated Press. Stern, Jane. Michael Stern (July 1994). "Butte and Beyond". Gourmet. 54 (7): p. 56. Trainor, Tim (July 7, 2011). "Pekin Noodle Parlor celebrates 100 today". The Montana Standard. Retrieved June 24, 2020. Wyckoff, William (October 1995). "Postindustrial Butte". Geographical Review. Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 85 (4): 478–496.