Chinatown Relic Battles for Future : Faded Restaurant a Throwback in Time

The Yee Mee Loo restaurant and bar sags into the corner of North Spring and Ord streets, its chipped brick, green linoleum floors and brown-checked oil tablecloths out of place among the newer mini-malls and glitzy eateries that have sprung up in recent years in the old Chinatown neighborhood.

The area was called China City when bartender David Yee opened the restaurant for the downtown theater and ballroom crowd 50 years ago, and half a century’s dust seems to sit piled on the delicately scrolled Chinese lanterns. But on this particular night, the regulars at Yee Mee Loo’s are talking despondently about the future.

The old establishment is scheduled to be torn down and replaced with a new commercial building. The construction project doesn’t begin for at least a year, but because the building has failed to meet earthquake safety standards, the city is demanding that it be closed July 9.

Some longtime patrons are not willing to let their cozy relic go down without a fight and are plotting ways to get the City Council to find a way to keep the place open. Their first action is to gather signatures from dedicated customers.

“This is a world that doesn’t exist anymore,” said John Doorin, an actor who has already signed. “It makes us ill that they are going to close it down.”

Leased the Space

John Low, who took over the restaurant after his father-in-law, David Yee, died of a heart attack, said the family has leased the space in the building from various owners for the last 50 years.

Last year, a development company purchased the building. The new landlords have been unable to get an extension from the city to keep the building open until construction takes place and are unwilling to bring it up to code because it is too expensive, Low said.

Ileana Liel, a senior city planner with the Community Redevelopment Agency, said the agency’s historical survey of the area designated the building “noteworthy” but found that it did not fit criteria for historical status. However, she said, if its use has had strong social value to the community, supporters could petition to see that the restaurant is incorporated into any new construction project on the site.

Low said he has had several discussions with the owners, who seem willing to rent him space for a restaurant in any new building that goes up on the old site. But that project may be years away, and he fears that if the restaurant is closed for any length of time, it will be impossible to start anew.

Camellia Lim, an official with the development firm that owns the building, could not be reached for comment.

Regulars fear the loss of a precious repository of pre-World War II Los Angeles, a place where incense wafts from an old shrine used as a prop in the 1937 movie “The Good Earth.” In the corner, an ancient jukebox cranks out soulful songs sung by stars of another era--Billie Holiday, Judy Garland, Bing Crosby. Countless movie scenes have been filmed here, including “Tough Guys” and “Chinatown.”

“It’s probably the only Chinese restaurant around where there’s an autographed photo of Babe Ruth hanging on the wall,” attorney Robert Ring said, describing a wall that contains dozens of signed photographs, including those of Mae West, Susan Hayward, Tyrone Power, Victor Mature and Alan Ladd.

In the bar, John Garcia vents similar sentiments. His father, Juan Garcia, a railroad worker, introduced him to the bar years ago. Back then, he noted, trains and streetcars stopped at nearby Union Station, and passengers stopped in for a quick dinner.

Now, Garcia’s own son, Anastacio, 23, drives 60 miles from Orange County to meet him here because “this is a real bar.”

“None of that yuppie stuff,” John Garcia said. “And I’m not afraid that this place isn’t up to earthquake safety standards. I’d rather die at Yee Mee Loo’s than anywhere else.”

Bartender Richard Mah explained to a new customer about the house speciality--a bluish-hued drink that contains rum and blue Curacao. Once called the “Bernie,” after a customer who always asked for it, the drink is now known as “Tidy Bowl”--for a similar-colored toilet bowl cleaner.

Mah, who has slung drinks at some of the fancier bars in town, has stayed here for the last 10 years because “the clientele are different.”

“They are friendly and more causal and like to talk and joke around,” he said.

As the evening winds down, the scene inside the bar takes on the air of Raymond Chandler novels and Humphrey Bogart movies. Cigarette smoke hovers in the air. The old bar fills and the noise level rises--but not loud enough to drown out the sound of Nat King Cole singing, “Unforgettable.” A federal Drug Enforcement Administration agent and a studio stagehand sing along with the jukebox.

Tom Jung, a movie poster illustrator who has been a steady customer for 23 years, said Yee Mee Loo “reeks of the ‘30s.”

“I’ll come by again next time I’m in town,” he said, turning to say goodby to friends, “if it’s still here.”