Still, it retains its nicknames as New Chinatown (a moniker disputed by local residents), Little Saigon, and Little Vietnam. Taste of Argyle spurred even more small businesses to open up.Īlthough the majority of local shops are Chinese or Vietnamese, you can also find Thai, Laotian, Cambodian and Korean shops on or near Argyle. In 1981, Director Charlie Soo, director of the Asian American Small Business Association of Chicago, started Taste of Argyle, which offered fare from local eateries. In the 1970s, Vietnamese flooded into the area.Įxplore the attractions near The Admiral at the Lake! In the 1960s, Chicago restaurateur Jimmy Wong attempted to turn the area into New Chinatown, attracting numerous Asian entrepreneurs to the area. There was a flash of foodie enthusiasm earlier in the year for a Vietnamese soup place on Lawrence, New Asia, which uses freshly slaughtered chickens from an Islamic butcher next door, and that leads to a terrific bowl of soup, no question-but this one is about as good, with less artisanal fuss, I suspect.MaArgyle Street is the namesake for the 19th-century Chicago suburb developed by Chicago Alderman James Campbell and named for his ancestors, the Dukes of Argyll. We ordered number six, the hu tieu mi thap cam, and it’s a simple but nearly perfect bowl, a clear, close to Platonic example of chicken broth with tender, precisely cooked bits of cuttlefish poking up from it. Anyway, as Wong points out, the point here is chicken broth with noodles and whatever assortment of pork, seafood, fish balls and fish cakes, etc that you want to have floating in it (plus whatever from the jars on the table that you want to add, such as chiles and fried garlic). He was still at that same post when we went, seemingly no older, just dressed for colder weather. He will remain etched in my memory engaged in one of two pursuits: figuring out sums on an abacus, or idly flipping a fly swatter. During the warmer months, the picture is rendered complete by the spectacle of an elderly proprietor sitting at the front counter attired in a wife beater t-shirt, slippers, and long pants. Titus Wong, the primary author of that 2003 thread, drolly captures the feel which hasn’t changed a bit in 11 years:ĭouble Happiness falls distinctly into the greasy spoon category, as one takes in the faded wood paneling, tacky laminated tables, and sticky linoleum floor. But we’ve been making a mistake passing it by. Nothing about it says good food is inside, it could just as easily be a barber shop or a bookie joint.
On a street of shinier shops with neon signs, it is the definition of nondescript, a noodle joint that can be fairly described as an old folks’ diner-older staff, older clientele, and most definitely decor of an advanced age.
Which it’s never had for all the acres of ink dedicated to our ethnic food scene, for all that Argyle-area spots like Sun Wah and Ba Le have gotten notice in mainstream publications, the only substantive discussion I could find about this place goes back to a Chowhound thread from 2003. It was good enough that the restaurant deserves commemoration in its own right. My interview with underground chef Julia Pham yesterday took place at a largely overlooked restaurant on the Vietnamese-Chinese strip in Uptown, Double Happiness at 1061 W.
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