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Joe Huie’s Café, Duluth

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Joe Huie outside his restaurant

Joe Huie outside his restaurant, Joe Huie’s Café, in Duluth, ca. 1950s. Photograph by Wing Young Huie; used with the permission of Wing Young Huie.

Joe Huie’s Café—an iconic Duluth landmark—was a modest eatery that became a community hub between its founding in 1951 and its closing in 1973. Owned by an enterprising Chinese immigrant, the restaurant served classic American Chinese, authentic Chinese, and down-home American food to a broad swath of customers with humor and hospitality.

In the storefront window, beneath the neon “chop suey chow mein” sign, was a cardboard sign carefully lettered in bright red paint: OPEN 24 HOURS A DAY BECAUSE WE LOST KEY. Inside, behind the register, stood a Chinese man of indeterminate age with white hair, his posture erect, almost youthful. His sinewy arms were folded and his gaze was intense.

A man walked in and asked loudly, “Hey, old man! Where can I get some good Chinese food?” The Chinese man turned and, with a smile of recognition, replied in mock seriousness, “Say, I hear if you go up to the twelfth floor you can get something to eat.” Although the exchange had been made many times before (it was a two-story building), they both laughed. The customer knew that the best place to get some good Chinese food was, of course, right there, at the restaurant wedged in between a bar and a barber shop on Lake Avenue by the name of Joe Huie’s Café.

Joe Huie, the man behind the register, had hard-learned values. In 1909, he had stepped off the boat from his native Guangzhou, China, and touched American soil for the first time. He was seventeen, nearly penniless, and didn’t speak any English. He immediately boarded a train to Duluth and washed dishes at the St. Paul Café, owned by relatives. After working fifteen hours a day, he attended an English class taught by a nun for an hour. Rarely did he take a day off.

Huie worked for years to save enough money for a restaurant of his own, and in 1951 he bought the Shangri-La Restaurant at 103 Lake Street South. After he reopened it as Joe Huie’s Café, the new business took off. Everything on the menu was fresh, natural, and made from scratch, whether it was egg foo young, more authentic dishes like yetca mein, or liver and onions. The most famous dish was the jumbo butterfly shrimp, which came with a side of fried rice or French fries and gravy. The meals were cheap (fifteen cents for a burger, potatoes, salad, fruit, coffee, and homemade cake), but for those who couldn’t afford it, handouts and eating on credit were common. “If someone came in and had no money,” said one waitress, “Joe would give them a bowl of soup or coffee.”

The décor was simple and functional. “It was comfortable, like eating in somebody’s house,” said one customer. At night, however, it became a carnival as patrons lined up after the bars closed, let in one-by-one by a hired policeman. “Let’s go to Joe Huie’s and people watch,” was an oft-uttered phrase. Stories abounded, and whether true or not, they added to its mystique. Even Elvis Presley allegedly ordered late-night takeout after a performance (though his two tour stops in Duluth occurred after the restaurant closed).

Over the years, Huie made trips back to China to be with his family. But due to the Chinese Exclusion Act, which restricted the entry of Chinese people into the United States, his family remained in China during most of his years in Duluth before World War II. Although he brought two sons to Duluth in 1949, after liberalization of US immigration law, it wasn’t until 1954 that his wife and two younger children arrived in the United States. A fifth child was born in Duluth the following year.

When Huie closed the café in 1973 in order to retire, Duluthians mourned as if an old friend had passed away. Duluth’s residents “lost an institution when they lost Joe Huie’s,” said multimillionaire Jeno Paulucci, founder of the Chinese food brand Chun King. Police Chief Eli Miletich recalled that around 1970, when former Vice President Hubert Humphrey had been in a motorcade going up Lake Avenue, “He saw Joe on the street and immediately stopped, jumped out, hugged him, and talked for a good ten minutes while his aides tugged at his sleeves.”

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Huie, Joseph. 1931. Fork. US Patent #1,801,084, filed March 13, 1930, and issued April 14, 1931.
https://pdfpiw.uspto.gov/.piw?docid=01801084

Huie, Wing Young. “Joe Huie.” Lake Superior Port Cities 1, no. 2, 1979.

Mason, Sarah R. Oral history interview with Joe Huie, March 25, 1979. Asians in Minnesota Oral History Project (OH 51). Oral history collection, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul.
http://collections.mnhs.org/cms/display.php?irn=10269581

––––– . “The Chinese.” In They Chose Minnesota: A Survey of the State’s Ethnic Groups, edited by June Drenning Holmquist, 531–545. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1981.

Jacobson, Don. “Duluth Remembers Joe Huie.” Duluth News Tribune, February 14, 1988.
https://newstribuneattic.wordpress.com/tag/restaurants

Koutsky, Kathryn Strand, and Linda Koutsky. Minnesota Eats Out: An Illustrated History. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2003.

Fuller, Sherri Gebert. Chinese In Minnesota. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society, 2004.

Harris, Phyllis Louise, and Raghavan Iyer. Asian Flavors: Changing the Tastes of Minnesota Since 1875. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2012.

Huie, Wing Young. Chinese-ness: The Meanings of Identity and the Nature of Belonging. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2018.

Murphy, Kathleen. "RELICS: The Huie Legacy, Chinese Cuisine Have Long History in Duluth." Duluth News Tribune, January 11, 2019. https://www.duluthnewstribune.com/lifestyle/family/4555599-relics-huie-legacy-chinese-cuisine-have-long-history-duluth

Related Audio

MN90: Joe Huie’s Cafe | Details

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Joe Huie outside his restaurant
Joe Huie outside his restaurant
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Huie family members outside Joe Huie’s Café
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Joe Huie’s Café menu
Section of the menu at Joe Huie’s Café
Section of the menu at Joe Huie’s Café
Section of the menu at Joe Huie’s Café
Section of the menu at Joe Huie’s Café
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Joe Huie’s Café menu insert
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Joe Huie at home
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Joe Huie

Turning Point

In 1951, after forty-two years of working his way up in the restaurant business as a dishwasher, cook, and manager, Joe Huie saves enough money to buy out the Shangri-La restaurant and give it his name. The rest is culinary history, and Duluth legend.

Chronology

1909

Joe Huie emigrates from his home in Guangzhou, China, to Duluth, Minnesota.

1931

The US Patent Office issues patent #1,801,084 to Huie for his design of a nickel-plated serving fork.

1949

Huie’s two oldest sons join him in Duluth.

1951

Huie opens a restaurant in Duluth at 103 Lake Avenue South. He calls it Joe Huie’s Café.

1954

The Huie family reunites when Joe’s wife, Lee Ngook Kum Huie, emigrates to Duluth with the couple’s youngest son and daughter.

1955

The Huies welcome a new son, Wing Young.

1956

On December 24, Joe Huie’s Café offers a special New Year’s menu starting at 11 pm that includes customer favorites like chow mein, chop suey, steaks, and American sandwiches.

1973

Joe Huie’s Café closes, and Huie retires. He is eighty-one years old.