“I been in Stockton for 50 years and this restaurant has always been here.” - Jeanie Fraumeni.Some customers have deep ties to the Golden Star Café. It’s time for us to enjoy our life together.” Now Kai says he and his wife are as burned out as the neon “Chop-Suey” sign out front.
That, too, is part of the Chinese-American immigration story. The Golden Star Cafe was founded in 1950. Neither of his two sons wanted to keep the dynasty going through a fourth generation they too left Stockton for white-collar jobs. “Since I been working here most of my life-I put hard work into this business-I figured I’ll just stay until retirement.” Over the years, Kai’s four brothers left for other callings. The beer signs alone tell the tale - Tsingtao, Bud Light, Corona – as does the menu, which ranges from Green Pepper Chow Yuke to cheeseburgers and grilled cheese sandwiches. That’s what kept the doors open all this time.” Just about everyone, they loved our food. Ever since I started as a young teenager. Kai was raised on Stockton’s south side, attended south-side schools, and apprenticed at his parents café, so diversity has always been on the Golden Star’s menu. (COURTESY OF STOCKTON HISTORY FACEBOOK PAGE) El Dorado St., just south of its present location. The original Golden Star Cafe opened in 1950 at 2215 S. The family association is still going strong. The Chan family headquarters, the Gee How Oak Tin Association building, still stands at 538 S. The Chinese migration from Canton to Stockton stretches back to the Gold Rush. Kai’s father, grown up and married, joined him in 1952. Kai’s grandfather returned to America in 1950, settling in Stockton, and opened the Golden Star Café. Kai’s father, though only 2 ½ years old at the time, vividly remembered his family scrambling outside just before the building collapsed. They ran a store until the Great Quake of 1906. Kai Chan holds a picture of his parents, Jimmy Yoke and Bo Lan Chan, who ran the cafe from 1970 until 1990 (MICHAEL FITZGERALD/CONTRIBUTOR)įrom Xinhui the Chans immigrated to San Francisco. Some of the Golden Star’s recipes trace to Kai’s great-grandfather, who in the late 1800s ran a café in Xinhui, China. “Next month, 43 years,” Kai Chan said of all the time he’s put in. Kai and Elaine Chan are selling the Golden Star Café, ending a 72-year-run in which three generations of Chans have satisfied south Stockton’s craving for egg foo young.Ī San Francisco buyer will keep the café open, which is good, but without the Chan family slinging potstickers from behind the 12-seat lunch counter, a tradition since 1950. Feature photo: Kai Chan stands outside of the Golden Star Cafe, which three generations of his family have run.
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