The Oriental Restaurant

116 E. Parish St., Durham, NC

The Oriental Restaurant in Durham was believed to have opened in 1938 by Der Woo and closed in the 1960s.

Source: digitalnc.org

This ad for the Oriental Restaurant is from a 1938 copy of The Daily Tarheel.  It advertises Chinese and American dishes, steaks and seafoods, and the hours of the restaurant.  This was the earliest mention of the restaurant that we could find from our search through phone books and newspapers.  As, we learned in class, this early Chinese restaurant also served American food so as to please a variety of customer’s tastes when Chinese food was still a relatively new genre in America. The restaurant is open pretty late in 1938: until 12:30 am, allowing for more business.

Source: http://archerpelican.typepad.com/tap/2008/04/job-ads—-durh.html

This is a job ad from the Durham Morning Herald, published on April 1st, 1947. It was advertising for a dishwasher for the Oriental Restaurant in Durham. Since it was in a public newspaper, we can assume that the restaurant was looking for anyone capable of working, not just people of Chinese descent.  It was also interesting to see that there was not have a preference for age, experience, or race compared to the other ads around it (view link).

Source: http://www.opendurham.org/buildings/116-118-east-parrish-street

This photo is of the interior of the Oriental Restaurant taken in 1953. Unfortunately, since the photographer is unknown, there isn’t much context of the photo, but it appears to be of a waitress taking orders from customers. The customers appear to be Caucasian, which is unsurprisingly considering how Chinese food was on the rise in America during this time period.

Source: North Carolina Collection, Wilson Library, UNC

This mention of the Oriental Chinese and American Restaurant is from a 1954 Durham Telephone Directory.  We know that it is the same one from the newspaper article because it has the same name and address, showing that the restaurant is still open 16 years later.  It was also the only Chinese/Asian sounding restaurant that we could find in this directory.

Source: http://www.opendurham.org/buildings/116-118-east-parrish-street

This photo is of the exterior of the Oriental Restaurant taken in 1954. Since the photographer of this photo is unknown, there isn’t much context. From what we can see, the font of the restaurant name on the building is very “oriental” and “exotic” looking. This font makes the restaurant stand out and probably attracted customers.

Source: North Carolina Collection, Wilson Library, UNC

This is an ad for the Oriental Restaurant from the 1965 Durham Telephone Directory.  It is interesting to compare to the ad from the 1938 newspaper. While still advertising Chinese and American food, seafood, and steaks, the daily hours have decreased, and it now advertises Chop Suey and “Year Round Air Conditioning”.  The font used for the name of the restaurant has also changed. This ad shows that the restaurant has lasted at least 27 years on 116 E Parrish St, Durham.