Ruby Foo's

Ruby Foo's was a popular place on West 52nd Street that, according to Arthur Schwartz, served 13 kinds of chop suey and 9 kinds of chow mein. The main difference between chop suey and chow mein was that one was served over rice (chop suey) and the other over crisp noodles according to Schwartz. But I remember that some 15-20 years later on suburban Long Island chop suey had a slimier, corn-starchy sauce with lots of shredded bok choy and onions while chow mein had a darker, soy tasting sauce and slightly crisper, diced vegetables. Schwartz says the menu at Ruby Foo's identified wantons in parentheses as kreplachs, more familiar to its usual customers. The menu was a lot more expensive but more adventurous than the usual neighborhood place, offering bird's nest and shark fin soup as well as dishes considered exotic for the time listed under suggestions. It was opened in 1936 by two Bostonians, Ruby Foo and Florence Pike, and was one of the first to feature a modern decor combined with Chinese artifacts. Schwartz writes that the decor at many other midtown Chinese joints was downright kitschy.

In the March 26, 2006 New York Times, Patricia Volk wrote of a later childhood visit to Ruby Foo's. "You'd walk through a dim entrance lined with beautiful bowing ladies wearing embroidered cheongsams. A towering porcelain Buddha in green robes presided over the dining room. His earlobes hung to his shoulders, something I worried would happen to my grandmother, who liked big earrings. Dinner started with ribs, followed by entrees like war hoo hip har and moo goo gai pan. They arrived on stainless steel pedestal dishes with matching covers. The steam could frizz your hair." Ruby Foo had an outpost in 1940 at the World's Fair and a line of canned foods by the end of the decade. The current Ruby Foo's near Times Square is a later Pan-Asian incarnation whose Upper West Side sibling recently closed. Only the name is the same.

Ruby Foo's had a number of competitors in the neighborhood like Lum Fong's also on West 52nd Street. Chinese food also was often on the menu at nightclubs, often as the cheapest option. The Stork Club served Billingsley Chop Suey, supposedly concocted for child star Margaret O'Brien, made with wild rice, spinach, celery hearts and broiled rib steaks and unlike anything ever seen in China.