Montana Owner Of Oldest Chinese Restaurant In America Considers Closing

BUTTE, Mont. — It was a clear sign of disrespect. In the alley behind Pekin Noodle Parlor, a man was relieving himself.

Fifth-generation proprietor Jerry Tam reached for a stalk of celery meant for the restaurant's famous chop suey and hurled it at the man. It hit him right in his business.

"It's a favorite," said Jerry of the story as he told it in the restaurant's kitchen with Ed Mosca, who's cooked at the Noodle Parlor for the last 16 years.

Mosca and Jerry pursued the man into the alley.

"I got him in a headlock," said Mosca, who was then assaulted by the man's girlfriend. But Jerry was there to mop up the situation.

"Jerry came at her with a snow shovel," remembered Mosca. "I love this place."

Mosca started working when Jerry's father — who went by Danny Wong in Butte — ran the restaurant. At that time, Jerry was pursuing his dream of being a fashion designer in New York City.

Mosca said the flying celery story was just one of many written into the long, strange history of the oldest continuously operating Chinese restaurant in the United States.

The place opened in 1911, and now for the first time, Jerry is openly talking about closing it and moving on.

"I'm bored, I'm bored, I'm bored," barked Jerry, 49, during a two-and-half-hour stream of consciousness interview that included anecdotes about Taylor Swift, Evel Knievel, the painter Edward Hopper, the gunslinger Jesse James, the Chinese Mafia and a former U.S. ambassador to China — who was pals with Jerry's dad.

Then there's the story about Mario Van Peebles, who Jerry said came to Montana to shoot his latest film, "Outlaw Posse," a bizarre Western that includes Jerry in a minor role.

Last year on the way home from a party for the film's cast and crew in Bozeman, Jerry said he crashed his Lincoln SUV after hydroplaning across the rain-soaked interstate. The vehicle burst into flames, but Jerry walked away with only minor injuries.

The crash is a sensitive topic, and so is the prospect of moving on from the restaurant.

But in bursts of emotional conversation, Jerry talks about what he really wants. 

"I want to be in Hawaii. I don't want to cook food anymore," said Jerry. "I don't want any restaurant to close. But they're all closing down."

Legendary Place

The Pekin Noodle Parlor's story begins in 1909, when Jerry's great-great-grandfather Tam Kwong Yee arrived in Butte from Guangzhou, China, via San Francisco, along with business partner Hum Yow and Yow's wife Bessie.

At the time, the mining city of Butte was earning its nickname "The Richest Hill On Earth" with a thriving nightlife and restaurant scene.

The restaurant was open deep into the night and served as an unofficial social center for Butte's colorful cast of characters, from miners fresh off their shifts to politicians conducting late-night business.

An underground network of tunnels connected the Noodle Parlor with other businesses during Prohibition, and Jerry is proud the parlor was neighbors with one of the city's black nightclubs.

The family grew bean sprouts in the basement and developed a cuisine Jerry calls Chinese-American comfort food.

Sweet-and-sour dishes are popular, and Jerry points out his place makes its own sauce that’s not bright red like what you find at Panda Express.

Jerry has server Madison Fletcher bring out a round of appetizers. It includes the simple pleasures of fried wontons in a homemade, brownish sweet-and-sour sauce, along with Chinese barbecued pork with hot mustard and sesame seeds.

Then two friends show up, business owners from the casino and lounge next door. Jerry's demeanor frantically upshifts into gracious host mode as he lavishes hospitality on the pair.

"We get all the appetizers," Jerry tells another server. "And then a four-piece crab rangoon. Eight-piece barbecue pork and chicken wings. Do you want salt and pepper, or do you want sweet chili chicken wings?"

Then a No. 5 arrives. It's a combo plate of almond chicken chow mein, pineapple sweet-and-sour pork, shrimp fried rice and fried jumbo shrimp for $16.95.

It's tasty, and like conversations with Jerry, there's a little bit of everything.

Fashion Dreams

Jerry appeared on the TV series "Project Runway" as a contestant in 2008. He was 32 years old, but the experience did not launch a dream career in fashion.

But there were high points, according to Jerry, who recalled dressing music stars Mariah Carey and a young upstart named Taylor Swift.

Swift made her debut on Carson Daly's MTV show "Total Request Live" early in her career. She performed "Teardrops on My Guitar" live on the show.

Clips from the performance show Swift wearing a black low-cut dress and cowgirl boots. She played a glittery guitar, and as Jerry remembers, he got the now mega-star to promise that if Swift ever made it big, she would come perform in Butte.

"She blew the world away," said Jerry, recalling Swift's performance. "No one knew who Taylor Swift was wearing my dress."

From there, the stories continued, with celebrity names flying like chopped celery off a sous chef’s knife.

In the private dining booths, said Jerry, his father Danny offered guidance to a Montana senator who went on to become ambassador to China — Sen. Max Baucus.

Butte native Evel Knievel loved the food and hanging out at the restaurant, said Jerry, lamenting how at happy hour on a recent Wednesday night, the bar wasn't packed like in the old days.

The actress Helen Mirren, celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay and the comedian Cedric The Entertainer all surface in a stream of rapid-fire anecdotes.

Jerry shared a star trailer with Cedric The Entertainer while on set for "Outlaw Posse." He said Cedric marveled at the big vistas around the shooting location in Nevada City, Montana.

"I was just hanging out with him all the time," remembered Jerry. "And one afternoon he said, 'Jerry, is that the sun and is that the moon, am I seeing this?’"

Cedric had never seen a daytime moon hanging opposite the sun on the horizon.

Jerry told him, "It's called 'Big Sky Country,' Cedric."

In "Outlaw Posse," Cedric plays the mayor of an idealized Western town, and he asks Jerry's character Lee the ultimate question.

"What do you want to do in your life, what do you want to be?"

"My dream? Open a restaurant," replies Jerry's character, and Cedric shoots back, "Well good, because I like to eat."

Coming Home

Jerry eventually left the New York fashion world and returned to Butte. His parents were slowing down, and Jerry knew they needed his help.

He remembers overhauling the menu and ditching American fare like burgers and steaks, even though staffers and some regulars liked to add sweet-and-sour sauce to the burgers.

"Holy shit, it's the best thing," said Jerry, who still went in a different direction.

Deciding what does and doesn't work is a constant challenge in the evolving restaurant business. 

Between DoorDash and a shrinking customer base in Butte, Jerry's mind wanders to a post-Noodle Parlor place. Especially on slow nights.

But some nights are still big, said the server Fletcher, who once brought in $500 in tips.

Jerry and Fletcher banter about the good times, in Butte and in Las Vegas, where Jerry treated Fletcher to a gambling trip.

At one point she was up $17,000 at the blackjack table and Jerry told her to quit while she was ahead.

"He said, 'Cash out, cash out,'" remembered Fletcher, who didn't listen.

"She said, 'No, I'm going for it,'" added Jerry, who then watched her lose it all.

That sort of scene used to play out downstairs from the restaurant, where an underground casino and brothel once operated.

Jerry walks through what's left of the place, pointing out the old casino cage, slot machines, roulette tables and private rooms for ladies and clients.

Danny's Shadow

When Danny Wong died in 2020, the TV station in Butte remembered him fondly as a local legend and friend to Montana politicians who made the parlor a regular campaign stop.

"Danny's son Jerry Tam, who has been running the restaurant, said his father's immigration story is that of an American Dream," reported the Montana TV station KXLF.

Five years later, Jerry isn't so sure he can keep the dream alive.

He's tired, leaving open the possibility that this is the restaurant's last year in business. Come next spring, the longest operating Chinese restaurant could dim its iconic neon sign for good.

"I want to sleep. I want to find a wife. I want to do things," said Jerry. "I don't want to live in my parents' house. I want to build a barndominium."

It's the end of the day. This kind of bluster seems to help Jerry blow off steam. And there's a playfulness about him, even as he daydreams about "going to hang out with my cat and die on some beach."

He worries the restaurant world is decaying around him, and that he's being pulled in the direction of those Chinese places in the mall, with their unappetizing pictures of the food.

He points to a clock on his restaurant's wall. It's 6:30 p.m. and business at the Noodle Parlor is still slow, even for a Wednesday night.

Again, spicing the conversation with a Hollywood reference, he notes how in the dystopian film "Demolition Man," there was only Taco Bell.

"There was only Taco Bell," repeated Jerry, nodding and shrugging.

"So, it scares you," he added. "I don't know if anyone is coming anymore. If I don't have people here at 6:30 p.m., they're not coming."

Some nights, Jerry sends staff home early.

"We have the best people in Butte," Jerry said of his dining room and kitchen crews.

A buddy from high school tends bar, and Jerry likes to make the rounds in the small, vintage lounge just off the dining room.

It's there on a slow Wednesday night that Jerry dreams aloud about doing things.

"I'm going to get Taylor to perform in Butte, Montana," he declared. "She's made it big."

David Madison can be reached at david@cowboystatedaily.com.