Family Tea House

“The Family Tea House: Where Culture and Cuisine Met in Arlington” is a temporary exhibit at the Arlington Historical Museum that explores the story of Family Tea House, the food it offered and the role it played in a brief but important episode in Virginia’s civil rights movement.

Caroline Tso, a rising freshman at Carter G. Woodson High School in Fairfax County, who created the exhibit,  believes that it is “an homage to all the rich Asian history here in Northern Virginia.”

Arlington in the early 1940s and 50s did not have much of an Asian population. For example, the 1920 census had 4 non-white, non-black individuals, by 1950, 152, by 1960, 639. Then the population exploded to 2,879 in 1970, in 1980, 12,450, by 1990, 23,089. In 2020, 10.3% or 24,468 people identified as Asian. The increase stemmed from the repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1943, and then an influx from increased immigration and suburbanization from D.C. The repeal of the Exclusion Act occurred because of WWII and the United States’ alliance with China, but still limited immigration to 100 or so Chinese immigrants per year. Many of those immigrants were middle class immigrants seeking education and opportunity in the United States.

Today Chinese restaurants are very common in Arlington county. But what is considered the “first” Chinese restaurant in Arlington county? Early 1950s newspapers and ads reference a Family Tea House in Cherrydale, established by Jim Wing and his family. Newspapers called the Family Tea House a “landmark” and the first Chinese restaurant in the county. However, a short-lived Chinese-American restaurant named Fong Yuen pre-dated or operated concurrently with the Family Tea House in the 1940s at a different Arlington location and was also established by Jim Wing. There were also two early short-lived Chinese-American restaurants, Chow Mein Inn and Ock-Toy, in Arlington around 1937 to 1940. But little information remains about them. Regardless, Jim Wing and his family were the first established Chinese restaurateurs in Arlington county as Fong Yuen and then the Family Tea House became a long-established Chinese restaurant from at least the mid-1940s through the late 1970s.

With the novelty of Chinese cuisine, early Virginian restaurants that served American food would sometimes serve Chinese food on the side. Fong Yuen had an African-American chef for American food cooking alongside a Chinese chef. As part of historical Cherrydale, the Family Tea House existed as an anomaly — an Asian-American business in an are a with racial covenants. The building, built by Frank Lyon, still exists (4050 Lee Highway, now Cherrydale Road). The Family Tea House was still a product of the times, advertising for a “white” waitress. The Family Tea House witnessed the changing times in Arlington.

In 1960 Jim Wing had to decide how to respond to the Cherrydale sit-in as a neighboring business. Wing was originally scared to publicly weigh in on the issue, but after seeing Howard Johnson serve people of color, Wing decided he would do the same.  Wing, a person of color, publicly stated that he was choosing not to discriminate against others. In retrospect, this was a huge decision. The Family Tea house was also recognized by the media as one of the few restaurants hiring the handicapped.

Despite these changes, some things remain constant. Family Tea House advertised a Won Ton Soup, Egg Roll, Fried Rice, Chicken Chow Mein, Tea, and Dessert meal that would not look out of place today but only $1.50 in 1955 (now $18 today). Its closure also reflected the increasingly diverse restaurant scene that started, in part, with the popularity of Chinese cuisine. Wing retired and rented the building in 1982 to a Japanese restaurant, Tachibana, which now operates in McLean. The founder had immigrated from Japan and started his career by working in Chinese restaurants. The Family Tea House exemplified how Chinese restaurants eventually opened up the American restaurant scene to a more diverse food culture.

This story was written by Caroline Tso

For more info: www.arlnow.com/2025/07/30/high-schooler-uncovers-history-of-arlingtons-first-known-chinese-restaurant/