Ruby Foo
{{short description|American Chinese restaurant pioneer}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Ruby Foo
| image = Ruby_Foo_(1904-1950).jpg
| image_size =
| caption =
| birth_name = Ruby Foo
| birth_date = 1904
| birth_place = San Francisco, U.S.
| death_date = March 16, 1950
| death_place = Jamaicaway, Boston, U.S.
| known for = Restaurateur
}}
Ruby Foo Wong
({{clarify
|text= 1904 – 1950),
|reason= At the bottom of this article it is stated that when she died in 1950 she was aged 42 years, whereas a 1904 year of birth would have made her 46. The statement at the bottom of her having died at age 42 seems to be cited from a printed news source, although the page it redirects to is dead.
|date=November 2020}} better known as Ruby Foo, was a restaurateur who founded the historic Ruby Foo's Den in Boston in 1929. One of the earliest Chinese-American women restaurant owners, she went on to open similar restaurants in New York, Miami, Washington, Montreal, and Providence.
Biography
Ruby Foo was born in San Francisco in 1904. In 1923, she moved to Boston, where she started a one-room restaurant in Chinatown. The venture was a success, and in 1929 she opened Ruby Foo's Den, a restaurant and nightclub, at 6 Hudson Street. Billed as "Chinatown's smartest restaurant", the "Den" was the first known Chinese restaurant in the U.S. to attract a large non-Chinese clientele. In the 1930s and 40s it was a nationally known gathering place for famous athletes, actors, and other celebrities.{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/chineseinboston10000towi |url-access=registration |title=Chinese in Boston: 1870-1965 |first1=Wing-kai |last1=To |isbn=9780738555294 |page=[https://archive.org/details/chineseinboston10000towi/page/50 50] |publisher=Arcadia Publishing |date=2008 }} It became one of the first Boston restaurants to expand into other cities when Foo lent her name to similar establishments in New York City, Miami, Washington D.C., Providence,{{cite news |newspaper=The Boston Globe |title=Spilling the Beans: The Night Club Beat |date=October 21, 1942 |url=https://secure.pqarchiver.com/boston/doc/817072378.html?FMT=AI&FMTS=ABS:AI&type=historic&date=Oct+21%2C+1942&author=Dinneen%2C+Joseph&pub=Daily+Boston+Globe+%281928-1960%29&edition=&startpage=17&desc=SPILLING+THE+BEANS |url-access=subscription }} and Montreal.{{cite book |first1=D'Arcy |last1=O'Connor |title=Montreal's Irish Mafia: The True Story of the Infamous West End Gang |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |date=2011 |isbn=9780470676158 |page=38 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NB1DO83ejf0C&pg=PA38}} Foo was a mentor to many aspiring chefs in the Boston area.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KcCMtprTrv4C&pg=PA46 |title=Boston Women's Heritage Trail: Seven Self-Guided Walks Through Four Centuries of Boston Women's History |first1=Polly W. |last1=Kaufman |publisher=Applewood Books |date=2006 |isbn=9781933212401 |page=46 }}
Foo was married three times and had two children, Earl and Doris Shong. Her third husband was William Wong. According to the Boston Globe, after seeing the famous "Bloody Saturday" photograph of a crying baby in a bombed-out Shanghai railway station, she arranged to have the baby brought to the U.S., where she adopted him in 1938, naming him Ronald.{{cite news |newspaper=The Boston Globe |url=https://secure.pqarchiver.com/boston/doc/839665501.html?FMT=AI&FMTS=ABS:AI&type=historic&date=Mar+16%2C+1950&author=&pub=Daily+Boston+Globe+%281928-1960%29&edition=&startpage=1&desc=Ruby+Foo%2C+42%2C+Restaurateur%2C+Dies+Suddenly |title=Ruby Foo, 42, Restaurateur, Dies Suddenly |date=March 16, 1950 |url-access=subscription }}{{cite news |newspaper=The Boston Globe |title=Ask the Globe |date=August 2, 1996 |url= }}
Foo died of a heart attack in her Jamaicaway home on March 16, 1950, {{clarify
|text= aged 42
|reason= Her birth years at the top of the article are given as 1904–1950, a span of 46 years
|date=November 2020}}. Her funeral was attended by prominent city and state officials, as well as "stage, screen, and radio personalities".{{cite news |newspaper=The Boston Globe |title=Ruby Foo |date=March 17, 1950 |url-access=subscription |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/839680845}} She is commemorated on the Boston Women's Heritage Trail.
References
{{reflist|30em}}
External links
{{Commons category|Ruby Foo's}}
- [https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/b1/40/50/b140502b091bfdf87cb44ebd84fb71f9.jpg Photo: Ruby Foo's in Boston, 1951.]
- [http://collections.mcny.org/Collection/Ruby-Foo's-Den----240-W.-52nd-St.-(West-of-Broadway)-New-York-2F3HRGCZ3MG.html Photo: Ruby Foo's Den, 240 W. 52nd St. (West of Broadway) New York, ca. 1945]
- [https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/23/77/02/237702b9775e8d638e6403b27dc53a88.jpg Photo: 1937 menu]
- {{cite news |newspaper=NY Daily News |title=Pan-Asian palace Ruby Foo's ends 15-year run in Times Square |date=October 21, 2015 |url=http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/eats/pan-asian-palace-ruby-foo-ends-15-year-run-times-square-article-1.2406073 }}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Foo, Ruby}}
Category:Asian-American culture in Boston
Category:Businesspeople from San Francisco
Category:American women restaurateurs
Category:American restaurateurs
Category:American people of Chinese descent