Join me in Hong Kong?

Back when the editorial offices of Today's World were located in Pioneer Square, I would walk home through the International Distric (Seattle's PC name for Chinatown) My route took me past an abandoned restaurant named "Hong Kong" that always mystified me: The whole place reeked of that sort of 40's noir atmosphere, even though the decor - from what I could see of it - was pure 60's. One of the display windows had a champagne bottle in it, which tells me that the closing was rather abrupt.

Recently, some postcards for Hong Kong showed up on eBay, and I am posting them here. It gives you and idea of the pure glam that was Hong Kong, which was typical of Asian restaurants of that time.



While you can practically smell the MSG in the above pictures, you can also taste the Mai Tais and feel the chopsticks.

While some of today's Asian restaurants have fun decors, too many of them are sterile, flourescent lit storefronts that remind you of styrofoam and canned soda. The food is usually good, but it's nothing like Hong Kong.

Of course, Hong Kong might very well have been the Wild Ginger of it's day. I have no idea.

Anybody know anything about the life and death of Seattle's Hong Kong Restaurant?