Wednesday, November 29, 2023

Photography: Chinese Tuxedo, New York City

The Chinese Tuxedo restaurant opened on October 6, 1904 according to the New-York Tribune, October 7, 1904. 
Exaltation for Chop Suey.
A Delmonico’s for Bird’s Nest Soup and Shark’s Fins.
The shortest and almost the crookedest street in New-York—Doyers, off Chatham Square—was the noisiest in the city last night, and as a result of the noise will be carpeted in firecracker red for several days to come. The Chop Suey Trust finally opened the first of a chain of giddy Chinese restaurants, under the name of the Chinese Tuxedo, at No. 2 Doyers-st. The largest American eagle in the city is the sign of the new establishment, and is the only American thing about the place.

A hundred invited Americans sat down to the opening dinner last night as the guests of Mr. Moy, the manager. It was one of the biggest Chinese dinners ever served in Chintaown [sic], and from Li-Chee to Ching-Moy the guests did not overlook a single course. There were some who were a little backward when it came to bird’s nest soup and, and others found shark’s fins a cutting dish. Ng-may-gai, a combination of chicken, bacon, and Chinese roots, was the most pretentious course of the evening. 

At every table was an Americanized Chinese, who translated the dishes after the guests had had a guessing contest on what they were eating. Toward the end of the meal souvenir chopsticks were passed around, and there was a spirited competition, which resulted in spilling more food on the table than got into hungry mouths. The lines of Lee Tai Bark, which may be translated—

Drink to-day, as we have the wine before us,
For morrow’s sorrows are morrow’s sorrows.

was the motto the Chinese hosts insisted on, and there was no end of white rice wine for the fulfilment [sic]. After 10 o’clock the doors were thrown open to the public, and Chinatown crowded in to marvel at the fineness of chop suey’s newest throne.

The restaurant’s opening was noted in the Wauwatosa News (Wisconsin), October 22, 1904. 
A Chinese “Sherry’s,” where no chop-suey is served, has been opened in Chinatown. With plenty of noise by the Chinese band, the setting off of firecrackers and the burning of plenty of redtire the Chinese Tuxedo restaurant was opened with great eclat. Quong Lee Tah, one of the proprietors, attired in a natty evening dress suit, greeted the arrival of the guests. Invitations had been sent out to many of the city officials. Through some unavoidable error “Chuck” Connors, the mayor of Chinatown, was not invited. The guests sat down to the following menu: Fresh le-chee, fresh sar-li, fresh star fruits, salted almonds, birdsnest soup, sharks’ fins, snow fungus, fruit duck, squab balls, ng-may-gai chicken, nuts, ching-moy, golden limes, sweet chowchow, red ginger, almond paste, pineapple, cakes, lichee nuts. 
Real Estate Record and Builders’ Guide, October 15, 1904, page 813:
Chattel Mortgages 
Chinese Tuxedo. 2 Doyers.. Nat C R Co, Register. 250

Real Estate Record and Builders’ Guide, December 3, 1904, page 1249: 
Chattel Mortgages.
Kew, C or Chinese Tuxedo.. Nat C R Co. Register. 350

The Chinese Tuxedo caught the eyes of photographers.

Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Co., circa 1905

Copyright filed in 1905 by the Rotograph Company.

Copyright filed in 1905 by the Rotograph Company; 
postmarked August 8, 1906


Jersey City News (New Jersey), May 6, 1905, page 1:
Did Chinatown.
Messrs Lehane, See Bok, and Rooney Have An Odd Experience.
With C. Soule Bok as a professional guide, Edward Badeaux See, Matthew Rooney and John L. McKnight, of the office of the Street and Water Board, and Sidwalk [sic] Inspector Frank P. Lehane, invaded Chinatown, in New York, last night. They took in a great many Oriental sights and dined at the Chinese Tuxedo, No. 2 Doyers street. They don’t look very mell [sic] today, but are very enthusiastic over what they saw. From the Tuxedo bill of fare with the aid of what knowledge of Chinese lingo they had scraped from laundry tickets, aided by pictures of lobsters, ducks, chickens, fish, rodents, etc., which ornamented the menu card, they selected the following dishes:—“Yut-go Men,” “Mow Goo Chop Suey,” “Hongo Foo Yang Don,” “Ting Dun Dong Guo,” “Guy Yung Yin Wor,” “Gok Fall Goey Doo,” “Char Tsare ye Yew,” and “Chow Tuay Fall Goey Chee.”

In the first course Lehane swallowed a big lump and got some of the noodles tangled in his teeth, and when his companions went to his assistance all he could say was:—“Yut-go, Men,” “Hully Chee!” “Dung Ying Know y Choke?” The Chinese waiter was both scared and mystified. He wondered waht [sic] sort of a Mongolian Lehane was. The name of the liquids with which the Oriental “delicacies” were washed down could not be made out, but that they saw “Three Kings” instead of one at the Chinese theatre, which they afterward visited, is not at all surprising. The pavements are narrow and the sidewalk inspector was obliged to walk side-wise. 
The Trow New York Copartnership and Corporation Directory, Boroughs of Manhattan and Bronx, March 1906: “Chinese Tuxedo (inf. unattainable) 2 Doyers”

Brooklyn Daily Eagle, May 23, 1907, page 15: 
College of City of New York
A unique meeting of the English Club, composed of the instructing corps of the college, was held at the Chinese Tuxedo restaurant. ...
St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Missouri), May 28, 1907, page 2:
Chinese Reform Regiment Disbands
New York, May 28.—One of the strangest gatherings this city of many peoples has ever seen was held night at the Chinese Tuxedo restaurant in Pell street, at which the 100 members of the Chinese military regiment were disbanded after three years of schooling in American army tactics, and announced their intention to return to China, to teach their fellow countrymen what they had learned of the art of war.

The regiment has been conducted under the auspices of the Chinese Empire Reform Association, which has 200,000 members in this country, and which has at heart the hope of awakening numerous countrymen at home to their power of numbers. There was no revolutionary spirit in the gathering last night. It was marked by stern patriotism and the expressed desire on the part of all present to see their nation of millions get in the same ascendency in world politics as has their midget neighbor Japan. 

J. M. Singleton, president of the reform association, one of the wealthiest Chinamen in this country, presided. Maj. George McVicker, who has licked the pig-tailed regiment into shape during the three years, sat at his right and received the chorus of kow-tows.

“If the men in China will do their work as faithfully as you have done yours China will have the greatest army in the world,” said the Major hen he arose to speak. Every man in the regiment is discharged with 100 per cent credit for service, a report which told the Americans assembled, better than anything else, how serious the regiment had been at its task.

Tom Monhik, Capt. A. R. Lee, Adjt. Lung Yow, Sergt. Fong Lue and Capt. Hong Ling harangued their countrymen over the space of three hours amid wagging of heads and Chinese cheers. When they had finished talking to one another they turned their eloquence on the Americans present to thank them and make them presents. None of the speakers, save President Singleton, has a very good knowledge of English and the felicitations were laborious.

Service medals were granted the military men, in elaborate speeches. President Singleton in his address said:

“Your work is by no means done. It is your duty to stir up in China that same spirit which you yourselves have already displayed in your work here in this regiment. Love of country is epirit which should be constantly more and more stirred up in the Empire. We are a people wonderfully powerful in numbers.

“The Japanese in numbers are a far, far smaller race. Yet how powerful a nation is Japan. In them the love of country is wonderfully displayed. Let the Chinese people display such spirit and we will be looked upon far differently than, as a people, we are now.”

J. Koehler; postmarked August 23, 1907

Postmarked January 28, 1908

The World Almanac and Encyclopedia 1908: Classified Advertisement


Patterson Morning Call (New Jersey), January 25, 1909, page 1:
Patersonians in Chinatown
Make the Grand Tour and Help Celebrate Celestial New Year.
... At 6 o’clock the party repaired to the Chinese Tuxedo restaurant at 2 Doyers street, where for upwards of an hour they partook of a full course Chinese dinner.

The menu follows:  
Gee Foo Men,
Mow Goo Chop Suey, Lot Ju Gao Gook,
Gow Shuk Gum Fon,
Ting Hong Soot Gee,
Chow Quay Fah Goey Chee,
Yin Wah Toon Op, Wah Fah Jock Soong,
Ng Shick Beung,
Sue Ding Go.
Lung Ding, Won Moo, Mut Ting Foy.


J. Koehler; dated August 18, 1909

New-York Tribune, August 18, 1909, page 4: 
Ask Receiver for Chinese Tuxedo.
Recent Chinatown Troubles Cause Restaurant
Partners to Go to Court.
Recent troubles in Chinatown have affected the popularity of the quarter to such an extent that the owners of the Chinese Tuxedo, at No. 2 Doyers street, seek to have the partnership dissolved and the restaurant placed in the hands of a receiver. The unusual spectacle is witnessed of Chinese suing each other in the civil courts. Justice Amend, in the Supreme Court, will hear arguments this morning on the motion.

The action was brought by Chen Houng and Louie Tong, two of the twenty-five partners. Houng says he has an investment of $600 in the business and is the manager at a salary of $55 a month, while Tong has an investment of $400 and is a waiter at $40 a month. The total investment of the twenty-five partners, Houng says, is $31,000. Each partner received an annual dividend of 29 percent, and there was a division each December of all surplus profits. On August 1, Houng says, Ching Keow, another partner, with an investment of $2,200, advertised in a Chinese paper that be would sell the Tuxedo on August 16 at auction, according to the Chinese custom. Keow threatened to sell the place for $12,000, Houng says. Houng does not want the place closed in this way, but wants a receiver appointed in American style. 
New York Sun, August 18, 1909, page 5: 
Sign of Chinese Distress.
Tuxedo Is to Be Sold in the American Way If the Court Will Permit.
A sign of the present hard times in Chinatown appeared in the Supreme Court yesterday when counsel for Chin Houng and LouieTong, two of the twenty-five partners in the Chinese Tuxedo, a restaurant at 2 Doyers street, obtained an injunction restraining the twenty-three others from selling out the restaurant at auction, according to the Chinese style of ending a partnership. Chin and Louie also got an order returnable this morning before Justice Goff to show cause why the partnership should not be dissolved by direction of the Court instead of in the Chinese way.

The plaintiffs say that the business, into which $30,500 was put, has been under the control of Lee Show, the cashier, who put in $1,200, and Chin Keung, the bookkeeper who subscribed $1,000. They saw an advertisement in a Chinese newspaper that the restaurant was to be sold at auction and heard that Chin Keow, one of the partners, intended to dispose of it for $12,000. They think that the Court will realize more for all the partners out of the sale of the business than will Chin Keow.

New York Sun, August 21, 1909, page 1: 
Sigel Murder Cut Profits.
Chinese Tuxedo Paid 20 Per Cent Until Publicity Hurt It.
Supreme Court Justice Amend reserved decision yesterday on the application of Chow Houng and Louie Tong, two of twenty-five partners in the Tuxedo, the Chinese restaurant at 2 Doyers street, for the appointment of a receiver. It came out on the argument of the motion that prior to June last the restaurant paid 20 per cent profit, which was divided among the partners according to the amount they invested. Then the Sigel murder occurred, and the profits not only stopped, but the place was run at a loss. 

Henry Schumann, counsel for the defendants, said that three Chinamen had formed a partnership to buy the business for $13,2000, and that the plaintiffs were parties to the proceedings until they suddenly changed their minds and applied for the receiver. He declared that in view of the conditions in Chinatown, the present offer is liberal, although about $30,000 has been put into the restaurant by the twenty-five partners.

Washington Herald (DC), August 21, 1909, page 1: 
Lose Money on Chop-Suey
Chinese Restauranteurs Want Receiver Following Sigel Murder.
New York, Aug. 20.—Supreme Court Justice Amend reserved decision to-day on the application of Chow Houng and Louie Tong, two of twenty-five partners in the Tuxedo, a Chinese restaurant at 2 Doyers street, for the appointment of a receiver. 

It came out on the argument of the motion that prior to last June the restaurant paid 20 per cent profit, which was divided among the partners according to the amount they invested. Then the Sigel murder occurred, and the profits not only stopped, but the place was run at a loss. 

Henry Schumann, counsel for the defendants, said that three Chinamen had formed a partnership to buy the business for $13,200, and that the plaintiffs were parties to the proceedings until they suddenly changed their minds and applied for the receiver. He declares that in view of the conditions in Chinatown, the present offer is liberal, although about 30,000 has been put into the restaurant by the twenty-five partners.
The Chinese Students’ Monthly, Conference Number, 1909


New-York Tribune, May 4, 1910, page 3:
Uncle of Brave Emperor on His Way to Grant’s Tomb on Riverside Drive

… Prince Tsai will have another whirlwind round of sightseeing and entertainments to-day. This morning he is to be whizzed through the subway into Brooklyn, and later will be the guest of the Chinese Reform Association and the Chinese Merchants’ Association at a dinner in the Chinese Tuxedo, No. 2 Doyers street. In the afternoon he will see the American Indian and cowpuncher as displayed by the “Buffalo Bill”-“Pawnee Bill” show in Madison Square Garden, and the evening will be occupied by a dinner in his honor by Mayor Gaynor at Sherry’s.
New-York Tribune, May 5, 1910, page 3:
Prince Avoids Chinatown
Warning from Peking Thought to Have Kept Him Away.
Copies of “The Japan Advertiser,” of Tokio, reached here yesterday with a front page story of an attempt to assassinate the Prince Regent of China, the brother of Prince Tsai Tao, who has been in New York for several days. The account says that on the night of April 12, while he was walking in the palace gardens at Peking with five attendants, an explosion occurred that killed two of the party and mortally wounded another. The Prince Regent rushed to the summer house and was hurried to the palace by soldiers. Next morning one bomb was found inside the state gate, and later three others were found.

Yesterday one of the party here said that Lord Li did not believe the dispatch was true. The party had learned of the rumor through the ship’s officers after sailing from Japan. At any rate, said Lord Li, the prince had received no warning from Peking. This was one of the reasons, it was said, why the prince did not attend the luncheon given in his honor at the Chinese Tuxedo. The green and yellow flags over the chop suey houses and tearooms flapped in the wind, and the glass wind bells tinkled merrily and everything seemed peaceful in the sometimes turbulent quarter.

At any rate, he did not go to the Tuxedo yesterday to eat the fine luncheon Tom Mon Tip had spread. Judge Foster, the Solomon of Chinatown; ex-United States Treasurer Charles H. Treat. District Attorney Whitman and others were present. There were two large silver loving cups ready for presentation inscribed with proper ideographs, and one was taken to the Hotel Plaza by C. K. Shue of Boston, president of the Chinese Empire Reform Association. He and the prince speak different dialects, and Lord Li had to act as interpreter. Ng Poon Chew, editor of “The Chang [sic] Sai Yat Po,” Chinese newspaper of San Francisco, was another caller, and Li Lick You, a merchant, who called on Lord Li, sent in a red card almost three feet long. Several other callers went to the Plaza.

About 2 o’clock in the afternoon the prince rode down to 23d street and Sixth avenue and went to the Erie and Pennsylvania terminals in Jersey and then back to the Hudson terminals. After a look at the city from the roof of the building he was taken over to Hoboken and back on the police boat Patrol to West 23d street and thence to Madison Square Garden. He took much interest in the Wild West show, and was particularly gleeful when Johnny Frantz, who came up from Texas, yesterday morning, hung to a bucking mustang by his spurs.

The prince sails for Europe to-day on board the George Washington.
The Numismatist, June 1910, page 130: 
A.N.A. Convention
New York City, Sept. 5–10
Announcement of Arrangements
... Thursday, September 8.—Morning—Business session. “Spanish-American” lunch at noon, followed by a visit to historic points of lower New York, personally conducted and lectured upon by Mr. D. M. Webster, including Government buildings, American Bank Note Co., Fraunce’s Tavern, where big roster will be signed. Evening, “From the Occident to the Orient in a Minute”—Imperial Chinese banquet at Chinese Tuxedo Restaurant and Oriental Numismatic Nightmare, tendered by the New York Numismatic Club. (No insomnia will follow this function.)
Trow’s General Directory of the Boroughs of Manhattan and Bronx, City of New York, July 1, 1910: “Chinese Tuxedo eatingh [eatinghouse] 2 Doyers” 

New York City, September 5th to 10th
... Thursday, September 8th
6.00 p. m. Proceed to Chinese Tuxedo Restaurant, corner of Chatham Square and Doyers Street, for CHINESE BANQUET, tendered to visiting A. N. A. Members by the New York Numismatic Club. Admission by ticket. Address by Frank C. Higgins, F. Recetas President of the New York Numismatic Club, on a new phase of Chinese Numismatics.
Mehl’s Numismatic Monthly, August-September 1910, pages 141–143: 
… Thursday, Sept. 8.—Spanish Lunch and That Famous Chinese Dinner.
... The climax of the convention’s social end may be said to have been reached in the Chinese dinner given Thursday evening at the Chinese Tuxedo Restaurant at the corner of Doyer’s street and Chatham Square. The arrangements for this dinner had been under the supervision of President Higgins for several months past and it is safe to say that no such well drilled nor thoroughly skilled set of Chinamen in the art of entertainng [sic] a big numismatic convention had ever been seen between New York and Pekin since the world began. Manager Tam Ming of the Tuxedo, who is himself a scholarly and accomplished man, had been long entertaining and resolved to do the thing in the best manner possible and lend a co-operation of personal interest and enthusiasm which those who have the habit f considering a Chinaman as a coldblooded and unimpressionable proposition could scarcely understand. The banquet hall of the Tuxedo Restaurant was a blaze of gold and color, the walls being a solid mass of exquisitely carved and gilded wood worked into foliage, flowers, fruit, birds and animals overlaid with heavy gold leaf, the walls being decorated with large and valuable Chinese paintings and the cornices topped by large glass cases of huge waxen dolls dressed to represent historical signs among the empresses, heroes and heroines of ancient days. A numismatic touch was added by a lavish decoration of huge reproductions of Chinese coins—knife, key, pu, bridge and spade money, as well as the cash of early emperors and temple amulets, being hung about in profusion. Although the many individual tables etc set in American fashion, President Higgins occupied, Chinese fashion, with his guests of honor, Dr. Henderson, Dr. Wright and Mr. Howland Wood of Boston, a magnificent estrade of carved teak wood, the tables of which were placed at the side of the guests instead of in front, and overshadowed by a colossal painting of the great Chinese god of literature and art, Kuan Kung, with his attendants, with before him burning a fragrant fire of sandal wood incense amid the ceremonial vases and drapings of the Chinese temple.
American Journal of Numismatics, October 1910, page 177: 
… An interesting feature of the Convention was the presentation of a portrait of the late Dr. George F. Heath, the founder of the Association, on which occasion eulogistic tributes to his memory were given, and a Poem by Mr. A. G. Heaton, a former President, was read. The social side of the gathering was by no means neglected, and the hospitality of the New York Numismatic Club was everywhere evident. A “French Dinner” was held on Monday evening at the Cafe Martin; a “German Lunch” at the Kaiserhof Rathskeller on Tuesday, and a “Roman Dinner” at Colaizzi’s Italian Restaurant in the evening of the same day; on Wednesday evening, a “Colonial Dinner” at Troeger’s Hotel, with an illustrated lecture on “The Coin Cities of Sicily” by Mr. S. H. Chapman; on Thursday, the members enjoyed a “Spanish Lunch” at Varreno and Laidal’s, and in the evening a “Chinese Dinner” at the Chinese Tuxedo tested the capacities of those who participated, while Mr. Frank C. Higgins gave an interesting address on Chinese numismatics. On Friday they sat down to an “Old English Dinner” after a visit to Whitehead and Hoag’s establishment in Newark, where souvenir medals were struck and given to those present.
New York Evening Telegram, December 3, 1910

New York Sun, January 29, 1911, page 4: 
New Year in Chinatown.
Confucius Was Born 2,462 Cycles Ago—Dinner Starts the Celebration
It is 2,462 years to-day since the birth of Confucius and Chinatown has on its holiday decorations in celebration of the new year. The observance of the new year began at 7 o’clock last night in the banquet hall of the Chinese Tuxedo. There the International Society of the Orient and Occident seized the occasion for the first of six monthly Oriental banquets. 

There were over 100 at the dinner, representing Persia, Assyria, Greece, Bohemia, China, Japan, Italy, Arabia and the United States. President Ex. Tchor Bajillions Oglu in a full Turkish costume was toastmaster.

The Trow Copartnership and Corporation Directory, Boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx, City of New York, March 1912: “Chinese Tuxedo (T.N.) (Tom Monkir & Chin Que) 2 Doyers” 

The Woman Voter, July 1912, pages 18–19: 
Chinatown An Elysium of Peace and Safety
... Then there is Big Jack Poggi who runs a saloon and Chu Chu parlor at 12 Chatham Square, with a back room in which are a piano and tables for women as well as men; its rear entrance closed by heavy wooden doors opens on Doyers Street, and it was at this back door that the pistol bombardment took place in the first hour of Monday morning. You can see on the glass over the rear entrance of the Chinese Tuxedo across the street the small hole made by one of the flying bullets.
Trow’s General Directory of the Boroughs of Manhattan and Bronx, City of New York, August 1, 1912: “Chinese Tuxedo eatingh 2 Doyers” 

New York Press, September 9, 1912, page 10: 
Hero of Hankow Cheered by His Countrymen Here
General Lan Tells of Aid Given by American Chinese.

It Did Cause Great Good
In Brilliant Celebration Lan Says Chinamen in Manhattan Were Particularly Patriotic.

... More than sixty persons attended the dinner, which also was a reception to the General. It was held in the Chinese Tuxedo, Doyers street and Chatham square. ...

The Chinese Students’ Monthly, November 10, 1912–May 10, 1913: advertisements

International Chinese Business Directory of the World 1913: “探花 酒樓 The Chinese Tuxedo Restaurant ..... 2 Doyers St.” 


Newark Evening Star (New Jersey), May 26, 1913, page 7: 
Miss Eng Gun Low Is Now Mrs. Chin Chee Yin
... Later in the day a regular Chinese wedding supper was given for the bridal party and the teachers of the First Church Sunday school at the Chinese Tuxedo. ...


The Chinese Tuxedo and Port Arthur Restaurant advertised in the New York Evening Telegram, November 25, 1913. 


Trow’s General Directory of the Boroughs of Manhattan and Bronx, City of New York, August 1, 1914: “Chinese Tuxedo eatingh 2 Doyers” 

R.L. Polk’s 1915 Trow New York Copartnership and Corporation Directory, Boroughs of Manhattan and Bronx: “Chinese Tuxedo (TN) (Tom Monkip, Walter T Ligh & Chan Kew) restaurant, 2 Doyers” 

(2) Chinese Quarter (3d Ave. Elevated to Chatham sq., or Interborough Subway to Worth st.): Port Arthur, 9 Mott st. Oriental, 3 Pell St. Chinese Delmonico, 24 Pell st. Tuxedo Restaurant, 2 Doyers st. Suey Jan Low, 16 Mott st. (less pretentious, but good). King Hong Lau, 18 Mott st. In all these restaurants meals are served both a la carte and table d’hote, the prices for the latter ranging from 50c. to $5.00 in the more expensive places, and to $2.50 in the more modest. In ordering a la carte, it should be remembered that one order does not necessarily mean an individual portion or a double portion, as is the common practice elsewhere. There are, for instance, a dozen different kinds of Chop Suey, at prices ranging from 15c. to $1.00 or more per order; as the quality improves, the sire of the portion increases, so that by choosing the more expensive dishes, a party of four or five dine quite economically on food of the finer quality.
New York Sun, April 3, 1916, page 4:
Chinese Republicans Dine.
Men and Women Express Disapproval of Yuan Shih-k’ai.
Two hundred and fifty members of the Young China Society, with a sprinkling of American guests, gathered last night at the Tuxedo Restaurant, 2 Doyers street, to celebrate the anniversary of the founding of the organization and voice their disapproval of the policies of the wily President-Emperor, Yuan Shih k’ai.

The Young China Society, which is ardently republican in its political views, embraces in its membership both men and women. Among the Chinese suffragettes present last night was Miss Cheuk, who helped make the bombs that were thrown at the Governor of Canton in the first Chinese revolution. Miss Liu of the Columbia Teachers College was also a guest. 

At the back of the room, above the speakers’ table, were hung the flags of the American and Chinese republics, and above them the picture of Dr. Sun Yat Sen, who founded the society during Li Hung Chang’s first visit to America. Among the speakers were Dr. Chung Wing Luong, ex-Commissioner of Education in the Province of Canton and dean of the Christian College there; Ying Pok Hsieh, president of the society, and Chin Que, a Chinese interpreter.
R.L. Polk & Co.’s 1917 Trow’s New York City Directory, Boroughs of Manhattan and Bronx, City: “Chan Kew (Chinese Tuxedo) 2 Doyers”; “Tom Monkip (Chinese Tuxedo) 2 Doyers”; “Walter T Ligh (Chinese Tuxedo) 2 Doyers”; “Chinese Tuxedo 2 Doyers” 

R.L. Polk’s 1918–19 Trow New York Copartnership and Corporation Directory, Boroughs of Manhattan and Bronx: “Chinese Tuxedo (TN) (Tom Monkip, Walter T Ligh & Chan Kew) restaurant, 2 Doyers” 

New York Tribune, October 20, 1919, page 2:
Chinatown Repays War-Time Favor of Major McCook
Chinese-American Citizen Alliance Makes Him Its Honor Guest at Colorful Banquet in Doyers Street

A tiny, up-one-flight-and-turn-to-the-right restaurant of soft lights and swirling festoons of colored paper, a maze of tables with white-collared Chinese scurrying about serving yung hung ha to other white-collared Chinese, Chinese music and Chinese musicians.

Such was the scene at 2 Doyers Street last night, when the Chinese American Citizens Alliance held its fourth annual dinner. It was advertised throughout Chinatown and New York as a real feast, and a real feast it was. The guest of honor wasn’t a Chinese. He was a friend of the Chinese—Major Philip J. McCook, who is running for the supreme court. But Major McCook’s candidacy didn’t have anything to do with his attending the dinner, and neither did the supreme court. It was something else.

Back in the days when the United States was at war Major McCook, who was then director of the draft in New York, did the Chinese a good turn. He helped them to stage a big Oriental feed at Camp Upton for Chinese soldiers at the camp before they sailed overseas. And the Chinese told Major McCook that they wouldn’t forget it—the Chinese never forget. And along came the date for the holding of the annual feast of the Chinese American Citizen Alliance, at 2 Doyers Street, Chinatown. Major McCook got an invitation, got a good feed, a good time, and got better acquainted with a large number of the progressive citizens whose ancestors were born in the flowery kingdom.

Luke Chess, who enlisted in the navy during the war, was chairman of the occasion, served as toastmaster, speechmaker and general factotum. He had a good time, and so did all his guests, including a number of court officials. Luke had a brief experience as a cook in the navy and the chow that he served at the dinner was first rate—wah yem bock, hung guy and bok won tea. Also birdnest soup and Mandarin lobster. The atmosphere in the little upstairs restaurant was richly suggestive of Chinese progressiveness and good taste. 

Several of the invited guests, including Major McCook and United States Commissioner Hitchcock and officers of the China Society of America, were called upon to speak, and the various speakers paid tributes to the loyalty of the Chinese people during the war and to their splendid qualities of citizenship.

Messages were read from Governor Smith and Mayor Hylan congratulating the alliance.



Further Reading and Viewing
Museum of the City of New York, Chinatown photographs


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