Funny, to our gang, it was the Three Ducks.
We used to go downstairs 2 or more times per week, after last call at a local bar (mostly the El Matador on Broadway). The waiters and counter guys knew our crew after awhile. We’d always order “cold tea”, and they’d pour cold Buds into a cold teapot for us.
We’d wash down our roast beef/roast pork/curry lamb with shots of beer in a teacup.
You ran with a classier crowd than I did. Our last call would usually be at Vesuvio’s, San Gottardo, or the North Star. If we wanted to continue drinking, we’d get our cold tea upstairs at what I think is now Great Eastern. If we just wanted to eat, we’d end up at Sam Wo or at Louie’s, an upstairs place on Grant Avenue.
My grandpa worked the counter at Uncle’s in the mid-sixties. He’d mentioned a couple of times how some customers would leave him a two-bits tip for his service.
We were fresh off the boat at the time, and could not comprehend/believe how/why anyone would give such big money to a stranger!! America, truly Gold Moutain!!!
Back in the early 60s we frequented Tao Lee Yun (that’s as close as I can get phonetically). I think it was on Washington or Jackson going uphill from Grant toward Stockton. A friend of ours from the Ornamental Horticulture Dept at CCSF, Howard Quan, had a job working there as a waiter. We’d go there, tell him how hungry we were & the plates would start arriving! Our absolute favorite was the Pressed Almond Duck. Have never tasted any version that even came close & now can’t find it at all… Those were good days!
Tao Lee Yon, 816 Washington St. It later became the Golden Dragon, and was the scene of the infamous Golden Dragon massacre
Tks Gary, I didn’t realize that!
Golden Dragon eventually became derogatively known as “Sitting Duck” amongst us former customers. As I recall, the only deaths and casualties were tourists, who did not know that diving under the tables while bullets were flying was part of the authentic Chinatown experience.
Any Wah Ching/Joe Boy/John Louie or wannabe OG knows to watch all entries into any venue where they are exposed. Being aware of one’s surroundings was just good sense when dining in Chinatown in the 70’s.
There were actually three locals killed, including a waiter at the restaurant. All, including the tourists, were Chinese.
Hi Gary! It’s Andria.
Your Chinatown anecdotes are great. Love the one about how you learned to use chopsticks at Sam Wo because grumpy server Edsel was joking around and refused to give you a fork 
I’m glad Sampson recommended the site to me!
Ah, so you ARE Andria. Fooled me. CTP=Chinatown Project?
You got it! Didn’t know it was a mystery but I wasn’t logged in yesterday
Incidentally, Sam Wo was spelled “Sam Woh” in the 60’s. I thought my memory was faulty, but City directories confirm this. I don’t know when it became “Sam Wo”
Wow, I could happily eat my way through 75% of that menu. In those days, spending almost $2 for a meal just was not done. Yummmm… baked lamb shanks, breaded veal cutlet w/brown gravy, fried beef liver, grilled lamb chops, and JELLO!! One could only dream. 
I found a couple of images online of the Chinese menu from Sun Tai Sam Yuen, one of my favorites from the early 60s. It was just down the street from Jackson Cafe at 622 Jackson, where Hunan Homes is now. Like Jackson Cafe, it had two menus, a multi-course Western set menu like the dinner set at the Jackson I described for you, and a separate Chinese menu. (IIRC the western dinner set menu was just a half sheet jellygraphed by a waiter during off times.)
I ate a lot of Chinese food at Sun Tai Sam Yuen as well as American food, usually chow mein or wonton soup when I dined alone at the counter. I believe it was my go-to place for Tomato Beef Chow Mein. The menu is from 1963, a year I spent a LOT of time there.
Found a bit of trivia for the Jackson Cafe where I enjoyed many western set dinners (as I described to you) as well as Chinese food: according to this article "BRUCE LEE’S TOUGHEST FIGHT, " his opponent on that fateful day in 1964, Wong Man Jack, was a waiter at the Jackson Cafe. I wish I could say I remembered Wong, but I imagine very few people knew that about him at the time.
The Jackson Cafe was at 640 Jackson, where Bund Shanghai is now.
Do you remember what was at 655 Jackson (Sam Lok, Z&Y) in the 60s? That was the second Chinese restaurant I remember eating at in SF Chinatown, in 1964, on my second trip ever to SF. I remember it was so crowded so we had to sit at the table right in the front window, a bit traumatic for my unassuming family.
According to my notes, it was Kum Hon before it was Sam Lok.
Thanks for solving a decades old mystery!
