Chinese restaurant said to be oldest in US is for sale in Woodland. It needs a remodel

Chicago Cafe became famous in 2024 after more than 110 years in downtown Woodland. Its new stardom is driving the owners out.

The diner at 411 Main St., determined last year to be perhaps the oldest Chinese restaurant in the United States, is up for sale as owner Paul and Nancy Fong prepare to retire.

The business is priced at $50,000, including Chicago Cafe’s name and trademarks, recipes, equipment and beer-and-wine license from the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control. It’ll need a significant remodel, said Restaurant eXchange owner Tricia Bernhardt, whose Sacramento brokerage firm is facilitating the sale.

Any potential buyer would be the first person outside the family to own Chicago Cafe since its inception. While the Fongs are third-generation owners, their children are doctors and engineers uninterested in taking over the family business.

UC Davis School of Law Professor Gabriel “Jack” Chin led an interdisciplinary research project that found Chicago Cafe has been serving Woodland customers since at least 1910. The Fongs say it was founded in 1903, but city directories of the time excluded Chinese-owned businesses, making the claim hard to verify.

If the earlier date is true, Chicago Cafe precedes Pekin Noodle Parlor of Butte, Montana, as the nation’s oldest continually-running Chinese restaurant. It would also surpass Sam Wo Restaurant in San Francisco, a 116-year-old Chinatown institution that closed on Jan. 26.

Chin’s project made Chicago Cafe famous. Visitors and news coverage poured in from the Bay Area and beyond, eager to taste and showcase the diner’s egg foo young, almond chicken chow yoke and pork fried rice, along with several classic American dishes.

Paul Fong is 76 and Nancy is 68. With just one employee at the time, server Dianna Olstad, they found themselves struggling to keep up with the influx of new interest. That kept business hours limited and accelerated the Chinese immigrants’ retirement timeline, Bernhardt said.

“It was a blessing and a curse. They got so busy, and that made them work even harder, so they got pretty tired, and that made them be more serious to sell to someone who can keep it going,” Bernhardt said.

The Fongs own Chicago Cafe’s 2,377-square-foot building as well, and any restaurant buyer would have the first option to purchase should it be listed for sale. For the time being, they’re looking for a tenant who will continue the restaurant’s legacy — and take on some thorny renovations.

Customer restrooms aren’t ADA compliant and require a walk through Chicago Cafe’s kitchen, a difficult setup that probably necessitates an entirely new bathroom elsewhere in the building. After years of grandfathering, the Yolo County Environmental Health Division will require Chicago Cafe to be brought up to all modern codes under new ownership, Bernhardt said.

“Typically, when you sell a restaurant and it transfers (ownership) and stays open, they don’t require anything or much of anything. But when you’re dealing with one that’s been operating continuously for as long as that one has — looking around, I know enough to see that a lot of codes have changed,” Bernhardt said.

Chicago Cafe is offering prospective buyers eight months of free rent to numb the sting of remodeling. After that, it’ll be $4,000 per month, increasing by 3% annually.

This story was originally published February 11, 2025 at 10:19 AM.