came across some old menus among my grandfather’s belongings … he worked at Uncle’s Coffee Shop on Waverly in SF Chinatown. Here is a menu from October 1954 … looking for a way to post an image. ?
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I am curious- who was the clientele?
I can’t say I was around in the 50’s SF Chinatown but when I arrived in the mid 60’s - this coffee shop and a few others like it were doing good business. Many places in Chinatown didn’t have much in the way of kitchens and there were a lot of single men who came to work in the US - they frequented the coffee shops for an inexpensive meal and the social aspects. Families came into SF to do shopping for chinese goods/food that weren’t that readily available in the suburbs. seemed to be a lot of elderly Chinese who live in Chinatown also … as did many immigrants who started off there. ( that’s not so much the case today )
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Quite an interesting topic. I’ve always been interested in such things from the past.
I’m surprised that there’s not a single Chinese dish on that menu. It looked like it could have come from any American coffee shop of the time.
Uncle H must have been one helluva good man and very smart in spotting opportunity and knowing how to dish up variety at a good value. We’re sorry never to have had the privilege and pleasure of his menu.
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