Peking Restaurant (Gone)
Red Bluff, CA Photo courtesy Tony Craig
Stopping in Red Bluff, check out the big neon martini glass outside Peking Restaurant. The food was good, but the quick changeover between servers could leave diners wondering whether they had slipped into a time warp. Instant change-O. At least the glowing neon offered something steady to focus on.
The restaurant originally opened as Ming Terrace in 1949 and later became Peking. Its unusual sign appears to have been inherited from an earlier cocktail-lounge era, which explains the giant martini glass hovering above a Chinese restaurant.
UPDATE: Peking Restaurant closed around 2016, and its memorable neon sign was removed. The original building survives as Guadalajara Mexican Restaurant, but the fate of the martini-glass marquee remains unknown. 09-26
King's Chinese Food (Closed)
West Sacramento, CA Photo courtesy Dave & Debra van Hulsteyn
Looking for good Chinese food in West Sacramento? Check out the wonderfully unusual sign for King's Chinese Food along West Capitol Avenue. The neon marquee was shaped like a person wearing a traditional hat and pointing down toward the parking lot. It turns out the food was delicious, too, so the fellow on the sign knew where to point.
King’s opened in 1960 and is remembered as the first restaurant to introduce dim sum cart service to the greater Sacramento area. The dining room remained a bit of a time capsule, with old leather booths, long counters, and the look of a mid-century coffee shop.
UPDATE: The sign has been removed. 07-08
UPDATE: The person-shaped neon sign was removed in July 2005 because of West Sacramento’s sign ordinance. King’s continued serving customers until October 29, 2017, when its 93-year-old founder retired after 57 years in business. The building was later acquired by the owners of Zócalo. 09-26
Wakano Ura Chop Suey (Gone) Sacramento, CA Photo courtesy Dave & Debra van Hulsteyn
Check out the towering neon sign for Wakano Ura Chop Suey in Sacramento. The marquee advertised both CHOP SUEY and SUKIYAKI, so yes, this longtime restaurant really did serve a mix of Chinese and Japanese food under one roof.
Wakano Ura opened in 1923 and moved several times as Sacramento’s old Chinatown and Japantown neighborhoods were cleared for redevelopment. It eventually settled on 10th Street, where the big neon sign arrived in 1959. The restaurant survived the Depression, wartime closure, and decades of changes around the neighborhood.
UPDATE: Wakano Ura closed in 2008 after an 85-year run. Its neon sign remained outside the vacant restaurant until it was removed in 2015. The building survives as Taiwan Best Mart, keeping an Asian food market at the old Wakano Ura location. Another gem of a sign has disappeared off the roadside landscape. . 09-26
No Mei Do (Gone)
San Jose, CA Photo courtesy Devil Doll
Driving along The Alameda in San Jose, check out the tall roadside sign for Ho Mei Do Chinese Restaurant. The name was sometimes read as “No Mei Do,” which made for a rather catchy bit of accidental advertising. Hungry for something to eat? McDonald’s? No… Mei Do Chinese Food!
The large vertical CHINESE FOOD lettering made the restaurant hard to overlook from the road. Ho Mei Do was a neighborhood Cantonese-American restaurant serving familiar family-style combination plates, chow mein, egg foo young, and other old-school favorites.
UPDATE: Ho Mei Do has long since closed, and the former restaurant property has been remodeled for modern retail and professional businesses. Its big roadside marquee was removed, and what became of the sign is unknown. 09-26
China Chef (Demolished)
San Mateo, CA Photo courtesy Devil Doll
Cruising along El Camino Real, check out the red-and-white neon sign for China Chef. Although the restaurant was originally identified here as being in San Mateo, it actually stood a few miles south in San Carlos. The projecting corner sign made it easy to spot from the boulevard, while the traditional Chinese decorative details along the side of the building gave passing motorists something else to catch their attention.
China Chef
San Mateo, CA Photo courtesy Jason Carlton
China Chef was operated for many years by Bow Y. Wong and Edward S. Lee. Along with its regular dine-in business, the restaurant developed a loyal following for its local catering. Former customers seem to remember the egg rolls especially well, along with classic Cantonese dishes such as Gai Po Lo Mein. It was the sort of neighborhood restaurant where the building, food, and familiar neon sign all became part of the local scenery.
The corner location was well suited for a sign that projected over the sidewalk. Once darkness arrived, the glowing red letters stood out nicely against the white sign panels, making China Chef difficult to pass without at least wondering what was cooking inside.
UPDATE: China Chef closed in 2014 after the City of San Carlos acquired the property. The restaurant was demolished, and the site became a public parking lot serving the nearby downtown shopping district. Its wonderful corner neon sign was removed, and its fate remains unknown. 09-26
Cafe Public (Demolished)
Petaluma, CA Photo courtesy Devil Doll
Traveling through Petaluma, check out the old sign for Cafe Public. The unusual name might not immediately suggest Chinese food, but the big stacked CHOP SUEY and CHOW MEIN lettering cleared up any confusion. The sign remained beside the restaurant long after its design had become a little piece of roadside history.
Cafe Public was established by a Chinese immigrant family and served Petaluma from the 1960s into the 1990s. Before becoming a restaurant, the East Washington Street building had been home to Wing Wo’s Chinese Laundry, giving the property an even longer connection to the city’s Chinese-American community.
UPDATE: Cafe Public eventually closed, and the old laundry-turned-restaurant building was demolished as the East Washington Street corridor was redeveloped. Its distinctive Chop Suey and Chow Mein sign was removed, and its present whereabouts are unknown. 09-26
Shanghai Restaurant (Gone)
Auburn, CA Photo courtesy Dave & Debra van Hulsteyn
Wandering through Old Town Auburn, check out the bright neon lettering on the front of Shanghai Restaurant. The glowing red letters added a little extra color to the historic brick building and made the restaurant difficult to miss after dark.
Chinese immigrant Tom Yue founded the Shanghai in 1896. The Yue family moved the restaurant into the old American Hotel building in 1925 and continued operating it for four generations. Inside was a wonderfully strange combination of Chinese restaurant, neighborhood bar, and roadside museum, complete with historic firearms, taxidermy, a mounted bison head, and decades of collected odds and ends.
The atmospheric interior even made it onto the big screen, appearing in the 1996 John Travolta movie Phenomenon.
UPDATE: The Shanghai closed on June 19, 2005, ending a 109-year run. Its enormous collection of memorabilia was auctioned off, and the neon lettering was removed. The historic building survives as Auburn Alehouse, a popular brewery and restaurant. 09-26
Wakano Ura Chop Suey (Gone)
No Mei Do (Gone)
Cafe Public (Demolished)
