Foo Chow, Portland

Foo Chow:

Photograph showing the exterior of the Foo Chow Cafe from the Sunday Oregonian, November 6, 1960, accompanying an article about the shooting,

Foo Chow, located at 535 Northeast Columbia, was open by 1955 and closed by 1975.  In the years between, the restaurant was spotlighted more for controversy than anything else.  

The original owner appears to have been Yok Som Yip/ Yip Yock Som, who went by the name Bonnie Yip.  Yip had been born in 1916, reportedly in Taiwan, and had been in Portland working in restaurants by 1937.  The 1950 census shows him living in a household of all men, with Louie Fook listed as the head, and John L. On, Ng Pon, Chin A Poy and Bonnie Yip living together as partners.  Each has positions related to the restaurant business.  The 1955 City directory for Portland lists him as the sole owner.  In 1960, Foo Chow is listed as managed/owned by Bonnie Yip and James Hong Lee.  Lee came to the US as Yew Foon Ng, and a report in the Oregonian from August 28, 1964 lists Lee as a new citizen who had taken the name James Hong Lee.

Like many of Portland’s Chinese restaurants, Foo Chow kept late hours.  On November 6, 1960, local papers announced that Foo Chow had been the site of a shooting and murder.  Donald A. Wallace argued with Robert Jenson and Charles L. Vance over a jacket that was thrown over a booth in the restaurant at 3am, and noted that the aggrieved parties escalated their argument outside, with Wallace killing Jenson and wounding Vance in front of their respective wives.  In a weird twist, newspapers discovered that several years before, Wallace had been lauded as a hero for jumping in front of a moving train to rescue a child who had fallen on the tracks.  The murder trial, eventually a death penalty case, drew plenty of unwanted attention to the restaurant in local papers.

From Sunday Oregonian, November 6, 1960, only interior photograph of the restaurant available.

In 1963, in a rare positive coverage, Foo Chow was the only Chinese restaurant listed as recommended by the Pacific International Livestock Exhibition.  While the restaurant was likely a sponsor, it represents an attempt to build out on their clientele.   

In 1965, the restaurant received more bad publicity when Bonnie Yip and a local restaurant labor organizer, Jean C. Crawford, were arrested on charges of tax evasion.  In October of 1965, Yip was found guilty of underreporting his income by $65,000 a year, owing over 417,000 in back taxes.  From that moment forward, Hong is listed as the only owner associated with the restaurant.  As a result of the tax conviction, the restaurant lost its liquor license for 5 days in 1966 (Feb 17, 1966 The Oregon Daily Journal).

In 1966, the restaurant tried to increase foot traffic by participating in Portland’s annual restuarant “Let’s Eat Out” program where a diner could purchase. coupon book giving then access to 40 restaurants that would provide free meals in exchange for their specific coupon.

Bad publicity continued.  In 1967, newspapers reported that the restaurant had been robbed at gunpoint, losing all of the money in the restaurant cash register as well as money kept in a safe.  There was no follow up on whether or not someone was apprehended.

The restaurant pops up again in a november 9, 1973 article about labor disputes in the restaurant businesses of Portland.  Chinese American workers, banned from joining the main labor unions of the restaurant industry active in the area (Cooks Local 207, Bartenders Local 496, Waitresses 207) based on race, they organized the Chinese Restaurant Association, which included employees from Canton Grill, Chinese Alley, Chinese Garden, Chin’s Kitchen, Foo Chow, Formosa, Hi Hat, Loni Louie’s, Mandarin, Moy’s, New Cathay, New Portland Rose, Pagoda, Seids, Tai Ping Terrace, South China, and Wishing Well.  THe bold faced restaurants, including Foo Chow, were all customers of F.S. Louie.

In 1975, on February 27, the Oregonian reported that once again, Foo Chow was the victim of crime.  In this case, the headline blared, “Curlered Man Sought.” A man wearing pink curlers shot another man in Foo Chow, after the man who was shot apparently commented in a negative way about the man in curlers.  

Foo Chow closed sometime in 1975.  Perhaps the pink curler shooting was one violent event too many.