Chinese Food in Cincinnati Has Roots in Family and History

By Robin Gee

Here in Cincinnati we are proud of our iconic food. Cinci-style chili? Of course! Goetta? Absolutely! Southern-style? Yes m’am. German food? Hold my beer! Chinese food? Wait, what? Yes, Cincinnati has a Chinese food heritage. We may not be well known for it, but thanks to the contributions of a handful of talented chefs and restaurant families, Chinese cuisine is part of our city’s rich and historic culinary landscape. 

Historian, author, and food blogger Dann Woellert calls himself a “food etymologist,” tracing the history and origins of food, digging deep into the roots of local cuisine. He has written about Cincinnati’s chili and goetta, but also about our wine heritage, historic restaurants and more. In his newest book, Cincinnati Chinese Food: A Sweet & Sour History, he traces the roots of Chinese food ways in our city. 

It all started with Mr. Wong

According to the 1900 US census, Hamilton County had only 17 individuals who said they were born in China. Yet, it was not long after that one man with a vision introduced Cincinnatians to Chinese food.

“The fascinating thing for me was that I was able to trace over 80 restaurants to one restaurateur by the name of Wong Yie, who came to Cincinnati in 1911 from Cleveland,” said Woellert.

Wong Yie had been working for one of his cousins, Wong Kee, and together they decided to come to Cincinnati to avoid tong violence, Woellert said. 

“Tong” translates to “meeting hall,” and tongs first developed in the mid-1800s to provide mutual aid and protection for Chinese immigrants who were subjected to extreme racial discrimination and violence. By the early 20^th century, however, some tongs had also moved into illegal activities, which in turn led to competition and rivalries. Violence broke out in larger cities, including those operating in Cleveland.

“Cincinnati was small enough that there weren’t any tongs, and so they came here for refuge. Wong Yie stayed. Wong Kee went back to Cleveland, and Wong Yie’s family operated Wong’s downtown for about five generations, from 1911 all the way up to the early ‘90s,” Woellert said.

He said Cincinnati had some “chop suey” houses in the very early days before Wong established his restaurant, but these catered exclusively to the handful of Chinese immigrants. 

Wong Yie had a plan, said Woellert. College educated, he spoke English very well and was very much in tune with American politics and culture. He got to know some well-connected judges and many of the Cincinnati elite of the day. He offered them a new and exotic dining experience — and that boosted the appeal and interest in his restaurant.

Family business plants the seeds 

Wong’s restaurant planted the seeds that grew with Cincinnati’s love of Chinese food. It led to a blossoming of Chinese owned and operated restaurants over the decades, much of which can be traced directly back to his family business. 

“Tons of former workers, former chefs, cousins that came through, started other restaurants, and that’s one of the cool things that I was able to include in the book,” said Woellert. “It is what I call the Cincinnati Chinese Food Family Tree, and it traces back…to Wong Yie’s.”

Woellert also noted that most of the people he interviewed for his book were women proprietors who gave him a good perspective of the business through their eyes. The restaurants were almost always a family affair. Wong Yie had three daughters, Ting, Won and Ping. Ting founded the Hong Kong restaurant in Oakley in the 1950s. Won married and founded the Chung King Restaurant with her husband in downtown Dayton. Ping moved away to Detroit and with her husband established Wong’s Garden there in 1941.

Early struggles and a big change

The Chinese community was small in those early days and mostly clustered around Court Street. A series of exclusionary laws kept it small for many decades.

“In 1911 there was probably under 50 Chinese, and they were mostly men…There was an act in 1875…was it was supposed to prevent people from trafficking Chinese women as courtesans and prostitutes, but in effect, what it did was prevent any Chinese women from coming to America. And then, in 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act said you could only come if you are a merchant. In 1914, they added what was called the ‘lo mein loophole,” which meant that you could also be a restaurateur,” Woellert said.

This led to a handful of Chinese restaurants popping up that catered to American tastes. Still in Cincinnati, he said, there were only about a half dozen operating from the 1920s through the 1970s.

A big change happened in the early 1970s — one that created a somewhat unexpected burst of interest.

“Nixon went to China in 1972, that’s what the Chinese say broke down the bamboo wall. There was an explosion of Chinese restaurants in Cincinnati. We went from six to about 40 in less than a decade,” Woellert said. 

Woellert was born the year after the Nixon visit and was introduced to Chinese food at a young age by his father who was a salesman.

“He took clients to Wong’s and Wah Mee and Formosa…There was one Chinese food restaurant in the suburbs of Colerain Township where I grew up, and he took us there. Oriental Gardens… that’s where I grew up in Chinese food. We learned about chop suey, which was my dad’s favorite, moo goo gai pan, which was his second favorite. Egg foo young was my favorite growing up…so that was my upbringing. Chinese food has been a part of my life since I was a little boy,” he said.

Different regions, different dishes

As the number of Chinese restaurants grew in Cincinnati, so did the food ways. Early restaurants featured mostly Cantonese dishes. Global politics played a role as it had in attracting (or suppressing) Chinese immigration from different regions and for different reasons over the years. 

“Depending on when they came over, the restaurateurs had a different Chinese identity. Wong Yie came over during Imperial China and during the Chinese Exclusion Act. He had that very earliest view of the end of the imperial era as it was changing over to the First Republic,” Woellert said.

Wong’s experiences and life were very different from those who came later. For example,  families who had fled communist China often ended up in either Taiwan or Hong Kong. 

“Mike Wong of Oriental Walk came over in the ‘70s after he had fled communist China and was living in Hong Kong,” Woellert said. “…A lot of his dishes he has are a result of that. They’re Hong Kong-English fusion dishes…One of those dishes, for example, is called shrimp toast, and it’s basically Chinese shrimp paste put on top of toast points, which is very English.”

He added, “In 1977, we got our first spicy Szechuan Chinese restaurant called Yum Yum that was downtown. The restaurant has been closed for many years, but the sign is still there.”

Tastes have changed. Now there are a lot more “Asian fusion” restaurants that include dishes from across the continent. They feature Chinese dishes beside pad thai and sushi.

Cincinnati Chinese restaurants 

Today, by Woellert’s count, the Greater Cincinnati area has about 60 Chinese restaurants. As a longtime Hyde Park resident, he said it was unfortunate that the one Chinese restaurant in the neighborhood closed last year. 

“China Gourmet was on Erie Avenue, and it could trace its roots back to the ‘70s — and I can trace it back to the people who worked at Wong’s who invited family from Chicago to open a restaurant,” he said.

He said China Gourmet hosted what became known as the “Star Wars Banquet.” Kenner executives threw a dinner there for the owners of a Hong Kong manufacturing company that made them the first Star War figures. 

For a long time, Chinese restaurants in Cincinnati were clustered downtown near the small Chinese community. In addition to Wong’s, Wah Mee and Formosa were located there. Woellert said the Court Street area almost became an “official” community.

“Don Wong had several restaurants. He worked at the original Wong’s, and he was a great nephew of Wong Yie. He petitioned the city in the ‘70s to make that area into a Chinatown, with pagodas and Chinese signs, but the city never approved it, and it never happened. But there was one time where we almost had a Chinatown,” he said.

Does Cincinnati have a favorite Chinese dish?

Woellert does not name a Cincinnati favorite, but said a dish created here became a favorite in two other cities.

“There was a dish at Wong’s called Cantonese war su gai, and it became what is known as almond boneless chicken. It was basically boned, marinated and then breaded and pan-fried chicken. It was served with this unctuous thick brown gravy and sprinkled with peanuts on top, or cashews or almonds, and that was very popular,” he said.

“Now, what’s interesting is Wong Yie had two daughters who left Cincinnati and opened their own restaurants in both Columbus and Detroit, and they took war su gai with them. In both of those areas it became known as almond boneless chicken.” 

The dish never was called that in Cincinnati and never really took off here.

“But in Detroit and Columbus, both of those cities claim that they invented the dish, which they didn’t. It’s very popular. In fact, in Detroit, it’s almost as popular as the Detroit Coney, so it’s still very alive and well there because of Wong Yie’s daughters bringing it to those cities.”

Woellert said Chinese food is an integral part of our multi-ethnic food scene. He noted that the egg roll has become as American as the hot dog or the hamburger. He pointed out both the hotdog and the burger are actually immigrant German foods. It’s important, he said, to appreciate the contributions of the Chinese American community to our food and our culture.  

For more on Cincinnati food and history, check out Woellert’s blog at dannwoellertthefoodetymologist.wordpress.com. Cincinnati Chinese Food is available through your favorite bookstore.