JANESVILLE — If a crown exists for operating the United State’s longest-running Chinese food restaurant, Tom Fong and Amanda Fong, owners of Janesville’s Cozy Inn, now wear it.
Following the closure last week of Pekin Noodle Parlor — a Chinese food restaurant that ran 115 years in Butte, Montana — Janesville’s Cozy Inn has officially become the longest continuously operating Chinese eatery in the nation.
The Cozy Inn, with its steep, 20-step staircase off West Milwaukee Street, its friendly neon sign advertising its one-time specialty, chop suey, and its locally famous egg rolls accented with a hint of peanut butter in the filling, is now 104 years old.
And still going.
Tom Fong says he’d always wanted to visit the Noodle Parlor, but he never did, and he’s never spoken with the owners of the Butte restaurant. Fong said he researched enough to know the operator left a career in fashion design in New York City to take over family ownership of the Noodle Parlor.
He’s seen pictures of the place, too, enough images to know that the Butte restaurant has some eerie similarities to Cozy Inn — including a long, narrow stairway to its second-floor dining room.
Fong says he’d fought the urge before to reach out over the two restaurants’ competing histories; there was just 11 years’ longevity separating the two.
“I wanted to reach out to them before, but I never really knew how they’d react. What would I have told them? You’re number one, and we’ve run the second longest?” Fong said. “I’ve never gone to Montana. I’ve only ever seen pictures (of the Noodle Parlor).”
The Fong family and their Cozy Inn have both garnered notoriety in the last several years, following international distribution of a historical documentary — “The Six” — that tells the story of six Chinese nationals who survived the 1912 sinking of the Titanic.
Tom Fong’s father, Wing Sun Fong, was one of the Titanic survivors. Wing Sun clung to an ornate wooden door panel that came from the Titanic’s great room, surviving afloat on the icy waters of the North Atlantic before he was rescued.
The Cozy Inn and Fong’s notoriety now grow, and it didn’t take long for Tom to realize it.
Last week, a few days after the Fong got a call at home from a customer who was excited to learn the Cozy Inn is now the longest-running Chinese restaurant in the U.S.
A few Chicago eateries claim they've operated longest as Chinese food restaurants, but The Smithsonian has registered Butte's Noodle Parlor as the longest continuously-run Chinese restaurant in the U.S. Cozy Inn has been officially regarded, too, as second place in longevity.
Fong knew of the ranking. The news that things have changed came to him just recently.
“I didn’t know about it at all until just a few days ago. So it’s still sinking in,” Fong said.
Noodle Parlor owner Jerry Tam said in social media posts that dining attitudes have changed, and it’s made Chinese food eateries more and more reliant on carryout and third-party delivery.
Tam said that trend makes it difficult for a Chinese restaurant with an identity built on historical longevity to differentiate itself from competitors.
Fong said he understands the pressure, and the forces that push restaurants to drift from what might have made them iconic to local diners.
Fong said Cozy Inn continues to hug tight to its calling cards — including the difficult, labor-intensive and time-consuming ones. For instance, Fong said there’s no plan for Cozy Inn to stop making its fresh, hand-made, hand-rolled egg rolls. That’s even though many Chinese eateries long ago gave up on such work. Fong says it takes Cozy Inn two days to prepare the filling and the outer shell for a batch of egg rolls.
Fong has owned an operated Cozy in since 1975 after taking over the restaurant, which was formerly owned by Amanda Fong’s family. It has continuously operated in the same location since 1922.
Tom Fong, a one-time employee at Janesville’s former General Motors Assembly plant, says he recognizes GM’s nearly 100 year legacy in Janesville as representing the one of the oldest and longest running auto manufacturing operations in the U.S. And he recognizes some five-generation family businesses that continue to operate in Janesville.
Fong said despite its own long and storied run, he does not compare the Cozy Inn to Janesville’s founding families or its longest-running institutions.
“I don’t like getting a lot of attention — I never have liked that. But this is an honor,” Fong said. “The way I see it is that you feel the honor of being the longest, the oldest, but you don’t rest on your laurels. You can’t rest on your laurels, ever.”
