Historic Restaurants of Billings (American Palate) by Fong Stella

Author:Fong, Stella [Fong, Stella]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing Inc.
Published: 2015-11-02T05:00:00+00:00

A matchbook from the Stockman, “Where Men Meet Men.” Courtesy of Western Heritage Center .

The Stockman eventually closed at the end of July 1965. Addison Bragg reported stories of card games that went on for twenty-four hours a day, week in and week out, and of how more cattle was sold and bought at the Stockman than at the actual stockyards. Obviously, for eighty years, the Stockman was the place “Where Men Meet Men.”

6

THE “CHOP SUEY” OF BILLINGS CHINESE AND ASIAN RESTAURANTS

Ying Lee Custer’s family came to Billings in 1937 when she was three years old. Her father, Chong Lee, brought his wife and five children from Loveland, Colorado, via Angel Island in the San Francisco Bay because he was to be a partner in opening the White Cafe. Unfortunately, he passed away a year after they arrived. With children to feed, her mother, Hom Lon York, took a job washing dishes at the St. Louis Cafe. Her two older brothers, David Fun Lee and Thomas Hom Lee, quit school and joined their mother at the St. Louis Cafe as cooks.

The St. Louis Cafe, serving both American and Chinese dishes, was located at 2507 Montana Avenue and was the longest-lived restaurant in Billings. The first evidence of its existence at this location, as listed in the Polk City Directory , was around 1912, with Charles Que as the proprietor and then Quong Lee taking ownership in 1916. However, according to the Billings Herald , the St. Louis restaurant existed much earlier and was purchased by L. Quock & Company on July 27, 1899.

In 1882, the year Billings was founded, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, which gave Chinese immigrants permanent alien status, barring them from becoming American citizens. Chinese workers arrived with the Northern Pacific Railway. These men took on some of the most dangerous jobs, such as boring tunnels and blasting mountainsides. At the same time, they organized themselves into a community on Minnesota Avenue south of the tracks.

In 1901, listed in the Polk City Directory for Billings were eleven establishments under the category of restaurants, five of which were Chinese names. Henry Young, Lew Quock, Sam Young, Yee Ching and Yee Sam Lee owned restaurants located on Minnesota Avenue, while Sam Young operated on Twenty-seventh Street.

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