One of America’s oldest Chinese restaurants may close after 114 years

The Pekin Noodle Parlor, one of the oldest continuously operating Chinese restaurants in the U.S. and the oldest that has remained in the same family, may soon close after more than a century in Butte, Montana. Jerry Tam, the restaurant’s fifth-generation owner, has begun speaking publicly about moving on from the family business, raising uncertainty about the future of one of the last remaining landmarks of Montana’s early Chinese American community.

Founded in 1909 by Tam’s great-great-grandfather Tam Kwong Yee, who emigrated from Guangzhou via San Francisco, the restaurant opened in uptown Butte with business partner Hum Yow and Yow’s wife, Bessie. It began serving customers at its current location in 1911 and has operated ever since.

The Pekin has survived changing tastes, economic downturns and cultural shifts, maintaining its vintage décor and menu of Chinese-American comfort food for generations. In 2023, the James Beard Foundation named it one of its “America’s Classics” for preserving regional culinary heritage.

But for Tam, the personal cost of that legacy may now outweigh its rewards. “I want to be in Hawaii. I don’t want to cook food anymore,” he told Cowboy State Daily in an interview. “I don’t want any restaurant to close. But they’re all closing down.”

Tam has hinted at his desire for a different life — one away from the daily grind of restaurant work and tied less to the long shadow of his father, Danny Wong, who ran the business before his death in 2020. “I want to sleep. I want to find a wife. I want to do things,” Tam said. “I don’t want to live in my parents’ house. I want to build a barndominium.”

The Pekin’s story is deeply rooted in the broader history of Chinese migration to Montana. Chinese immigrants first arrived in the 1860s during the gold rush and to help construct the transcontinental railroad. By the late 19th century, many had transitioned into service industries — running laundries, restaurants, and market gardens. At their peak in the 1870s, Chinese residents made up about 10 percent of Montana’s population.

Yet Chinese Montanans faced severe discrimination, from federal legislation like the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 to local economic boycotts and social exclusion. By the early 20th century, most Chinese communities in the state had been displaced or faded from public view. Butte’s Chinatown, once the largest in the Rocky Mountain region, has long since disappeared — leaving the Pekin Noodle Parlor and the Mai Wah Museum as some of the last surviving institutions.

Historian Mark T. Johnson, author of The Middle Kingdom Under the Big Sky, has worked to recover these stories through archival research and public talks. “It was hard to be Chinese in the American West,” he told Cowboy State Daily. “Sadly, our state had a lot more diversity back then than it does now.” He added, “There’s a real hunger to know the facts and contributions and how diverse our origins in this region really were.”

Whether the Pekin will continue beyond Tam remains unclear. He has not announced plans to sell or close, but his comments have fueled speculation that the restaurant’s long run may soon end.

If it does close, the Pekin would not only mark the loss of a beloved local institution but also the end of a rare and visible link to a once-vibrant Chinese American community that helped build Montana.