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Golden Chow Mein on West 7th Street is exactly the kind of place you take for granted. The sign’s “Oriental” typeface hangs over the sidewalk and a shrine cat statue waves at you from the entrance. Everything comes in a paper bag or an iconic trapezoidal takeout carton. The restaurant seems lost in time, unchanged for generations, and that’s even before you see the prices.
But all things must come to an end, even timeless holes in the wall. Golden, like its fraternal twin Leo’s Chow Mein on the East Side, is set to close at the end of the year. Together these two restaurants have been holding up St. Paul’s chow mein traditions, but the run of low-priced food has a sunset date. After decades of wok work, the last of the chow mein brothers is retiring.
The end of a chow mein era in St. Paul
On St. Paul’s East Side, Leo’s Chow Mein is the older of the two restaurants. On the corner of Earl and Old Hudson Road, the faded lime green paint on the building obscures what was obviously a service station — one of many mid-century Standard Oil franchises — and it anchors the small mixed-use corner. The cluster of shops was literally marginalized when I-94 was built in the 1960s, with the sound wall cutting off access to the south. The store sits today across from one of the better designed stops on the Gold Line, which is the new bus rapid transit route serving the East Side.
Leo’s began in 1977 when it took over the location that had been known as Wimpy’s Sandwich Shop and Game Room. For years, Wimpy’s had run afoul of both the city’s gaming zoning code and the law itself, thanks to a few high-profile public safety incidents. When Leo Ng took over the site, it was a welcome change. He opened his chow mein restaurant with a sale on subgum, and the rest is history. Leo’s quickly turned into a local favorite, boasting a popular lunch buffet for area workers…