How the Country's Oldest Family-Owned Chinese Restaurant Has Survived for 114 Years [View all]

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Last edited Mon Jun 19, 2023, 11:35 PM - Edit history (3)

Since opening in 1909, Butte, Montana’s Pekin Noodle Parlor has become a local favorite and national treasure.

https://www.thrillist.com/travel/pekin-noodle-parlors-family-legacy



On Mother’s Day, it felt like everyone in Butte, Montana got their mom the same gift: the Extra Special combination at Pekin Noodle Parlor. Though barbecue pork and fried wontons are less traditional than bouquets or breakfast in bed, the story behind the Pekin, the country’s oldest continuously operating family-owned Chinese restaurant, make their almond chicken and pork fried rice particularly appropriate for the holiday.



“I was basically born here,” says Jerry Tam of the restaurant that his great-great-grandfather opened in 1909. In more than a century, the Pekin survived two pandemics, both world wars, booms, and busts almost entirely on the strength of family ownership and fiercely loyal customers.



Running a family business means Tam knows that he always has support, if anything were to happen to him, and that the Pekin would carry on. But he also knows that if something were to happen to the Pekin on his watch, that loyal customer base might not let him carry on. “They would hunt me down,” he says. “They would just murder me.”



Tam keeps turning out the sweet-and-sour chicken and egg rolls from the weathered brick building on South Main for his own safety, but also for the sake of his family legacy: in the last few years, the restaurant has been featured in not only national newspapers and magazines, but on three morning news shows. This year, the James Beard Foundation honored it with an “America’s Classics” award. “It's crazy for a small kid from Butte, Montana,” he says. But only as crazy as the stories of his father and great-great-grandfather who ran the Pekin before him.

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