Danny Woo (1914-1987), a longtime Chinatown International District entrepreneur and descendant of one of the district’s most prominent Chinese pioneers, opened the New Chinatown restaurant in 1940 at the northwest corner of Sixth Avenue South and South Main Street. It was hard to miss. A large noodle bowl hung from the corner and from out of it swirled a dragon-like sign dotted with incandescent bulbs over the marquee, announcing the culinary and musical delights within. Known for its extremely late hours – the music often didn’t start till after midnight – the New Chinatown was a plain but exceptionally large venue – it could serve 500 people at banquets – at the top of a steep stairway from the door on South Main Street. For a while, “Big Dave” Henderson did double duty as bouncer at the top of the stairs and as a pianist, inside. Like most after-hours clubs in the district, the club sported a “kitty” for patrons to toss in their tips, but the New Chinatown’s was unusual, in that was actually shaped like a big cat.
Danny Woo at the entrance of the Chinatown (Courtesy of Teresa Woo)
The New Chinatown, c. 1940. Entrance is below the marquee.
(Washington State Archives)
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Danny Woo (1914-1987), a longtime Chinatown International District entrepreneur and descendant of one of the district’s most prominent Chinese pioneers, opened the New Chinatown restaurant in 1940 at the northwest corner of Sixth Avenue South and South Main Street. It was hard to miss. A large noodle bowl hung from the corner and from out of it swirled a dragon-like sign dotted with incandescent bulbs over the marquee, announcing the culinary and musical delights within. Known for its extremely late hours – the music often didn’t start till after midnight – the New Chinatown was a plain but exceptionally large venue – it could serve 500 people at banquets – at the top of a steep stairway from the door on South Main Street. For a while, “Big Dave” Henderson did double duty as bouncer at the top of the stairs and as a pianist, inside. Like most after-hours clubs in the district, the club sported a “kitty” for patrons to toss in their tips, but the New Chinatown’s was unusual, in that was actually shaped like a big cat.
The New Chinatown (courtesy of Terese Woo)
“It looked like Sylvester, with a red nose, sitting on the floor, almost as big as you are,” recalled alto saxophonist (and later, bassist) Buddy Catlett, who worked at the New Chinatown with sax man Terry Cruise.
In the ‘40s, when the club featured pianist Melody Jones, a steady stream of sidemen from Al Pierre’s band would join Jones here, after their job downtown at the Showbox. Around 1950, the great pianist Cecil Young, one of the only Seattle jazz players to score a national hit (with his single, “Who Parked the Car?”) worked with his quartet at the New Chinatown. Other first-rate players who frequented the place included pianist Kenny Kimball, trumpeters Sonny Booker and Floyd Standifer and tenor sax men Gary Steele, Bob Winn and Jabo Ward.
The New Chinatown was a legitimate restaurant but also a “bottle club” where “set-ups” – glasses of ice and mixer – could be ordered, then filled with one’s liquor of choice. You could bring your own bottle or, according to musicians who played there, buy it at the street level store front.“I played there nearly a year,” recalled Kimball, “and never suspected that we were a front for the illegal booze traffic downstairs.”Though bootlegging helped him get his start, Woo became an upstanding citizen, helping to founding the Seattle Chinatown Chamber of Commerce as well as the Chinatown Seafair parade. Woo kept the New Chinatown open until 1975, long after the demise of most of Seattle’s other after-hours clubs. After he closed, he donated a strip of land on the hill between Washington and Main for the community garden that bears his name today.
The New Chinatown site today. Note the noodle bowl still adorns the building.