Who would have thought?

I came across this ancient Washington Post ad on Flickr. I had never imagined 1920s businessmen having Chinese food for lunch. 

Image from rockcreek's Flickr stream

Out of curiosity I looked up "1920s Chinese restaurant" and found the Google Books' preview for China to Chinatown: Chinese Food in the West:

"The Los Angeles City Directory for 1924 listed 28 Chinese restaurants. The telephone directories for the city of Philadelphia for 1920 included 8 Chinese restaurants... In 1929, when the Chinese and Japanese numbered only 2.3% of California's population, they served 4.3% of all restaurant meals consumed."

The author goes on to mention Forbidden City, a San Francisco night club with a Chinese chorus line, and New Shanghai Terrace Bowl, a restaurant that solicited non-Chinese customers by handing out coupons in department stores.

But neither example is as intriguing as the Republic Cafe, a non-Asian-sounding venue that advertised Asian food to a non-Asian audience. Somehow I've always thought of DC as a less culinarily adventurous place than California or New York, but apparently that's not true!

Comments

[Dave Monk]

You might be interested in this project and blog on Chinese restaurants. Lots of stats and history and modern lore.
http://www.indigosom.com/crpintro.html