Looking at many old photos in the Loop pre 1930 in books and online there are many restaurants with big signs that say Chop Suey. These were obvious Asian but never marked as Chinese, Thai etc. Anyone know the reason?
Chop suey was a huge fad in the '20s...it was exotic and pretty cheap as well. A lot of the cafes serving it weren't Chinese restaurants per se, they just had it on the menu because of those reasons.
Does anyone recall the name of the website that has old Chicago photo on it? Not Craig's Lost Chicago but another one with the numbers 404 in the name maybe?
rjmachon Wrote:
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> Does anyone recall the name of the website . . .with the numbers 404 in
> the name maybe?
You probably mean http://calumet412.com/
The blogger went on his honeymoon in October and has posted nothing since.
When the Chinese first arrived in Chicago in the 1870s, they established a small downtown loop business district - in the old cable car service area - Chinese grocery stores, laundries and restaurants. However, because of anti-Chinese sediments prevalent in the country - Chinese exclusion acts since the 1880s - in the 1910s, downtown property owners raised rents, making it difficult for the Chinese businesses to survive and forced the majority to move to the city's South Side.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/18/2014 11:14PM by nordsider.