Route 66: San Bernardino
PART 2: San Bernardino’s Chinatown
Motoring East from the Los Angeles New Chinatown, the Louies next sold ceramics to businesses in San Bernardino. Starting in the late 19th century, this desert city had a thriving Chinatown. Louie sold to at least three restaurants in the city (Song Hay Restaurant, Golden Dragon, and Bing’s Cathay House). The Chinese Restaurants known to be FS Louie customers were all concentrated along Highland which ran just north and parallel to Route 66 through San Bernardino.
Advertisement for Sam’s Golden Dragon
Golden Dragon, 1042 West Highland Ave, San Bernardino, CA
The San Bernardino County Sun announced the soft opening of the Golden Dragon Restaurant on November 26, 1959, announcing that it would be serving Thanksgiving Dinner, including roast young Tom turkey and traditional Cantonese dinners. The “Grand Opening” featuring “free gifts” was advertised for December 8th, 1959. The advertisement featured the same dragon that appeared in gilt decoration on the FS Louie ashtray for the restaurant. It is tempting to wonder whether the ashtray was one of the free gifts for customers!
In 1960, Mothers who came for dinner on Mother’s Day were promised gifts as well. By 1965, the restaurant was advertised as “Sam’s Golden Dragon”, a name it retained until 1981. The dragon logo showed up in advertisements until 1968, when the print advertisements shifted to showing a cartoon rendition of the restaurant exterior.
The restaurant continued to advertise at holidays through the 1970s, but more regularly appeared in the local paper seeking waitresses and cooks. In 1981 the restaurant disappeared from papers. In 1983, the San Bernardino County Sun reported that the restaurant had reopened under the management of Ken Tam, and featured renewed good food. The restaurant seems to have continued in operation through the mid 1990s.
1964 Advertisement for Thanksgiving Dinner at Song Hay
Song Hay
Located at 1180 E. Highland, Song Hay announced its opening in late July, 1964. The restaurant kept a much lower profile than the Golden Dragon, but like its competitor, its advertising focused on drawing customers in for Mother’s Day and Thanksgiving. Originally owned and run by Alan C. Y. and Pansy Kwong, the couple sold the restaurant, with all of its “fixtures, equipment, trade name and good will” to Jew WIng Mun and Jew Mae Shue in October of 1971. An October 23, 1970 advertisement in the San Bernardino County Sun featured an image of Mr. Jew Wing, asking readers if they had tried Song Hay. In 1974, the “Oriental” restaurants of San Bernardino banded together to advertise jointly in the local paper: Bing’s Cathay Inn, Sam’s Golden Dragon, Song Hay and Wong’s shared advertisements that year. After August 7, 1974, Song Hay no longer appears in newspaper advertisements.
FS Louie Ashtray from Song Hay.
Bing’s Cathay House
1956 Announcement of New Cathay’s Opening
Bing Wong (黄植礼) came to the US in 1923 from the Gombenn village (甘边村) as a child and quickly became involved in both the restaurant business, first in Calexico, and later, in San Bernardino, and philanthropy. Bing’s Cathay Inn was first opened in 1940 and moved to its Highland Ave. location in 1955. After setting up a $100,000 scholarship fund that provided every qualifying San Bernardino High School graduate entering college with a $1000 scholarship, the San Bernardino County Sun extolled his generosity. Wong hosted fundraising gold tournaments, and in 1972 was part of a fund-raising gourmet cooking series in the city. Wong’s sale of the restaurant, in 1974 to Mr. and Mrs. Wei-Yen Tang was covered by the local newspaper. At that time it was reported that the original 100,000 dollar scholarship fund had been increased another $67,000 through fundraising activities. Bing’s Cathay Inn retained its name, and the restaurant sold again in 1985, and was reportedly having problems staying open in 1990 under the ownership of Tan Fa-Kwan.
https://gombenn.org/gombenn-restaurants/
