Lee-Choi restaurant featured a luncheon special in February 1976, which included a choice of Shrimp Hong Sue or Beef Kew with egg roll, soup, tea and almond cookie for only $2.95.

Lee-Choi Restaurant was located at 7244 Madison St. (present-day O’Sullivan’s, formerly Harold’s) offered traditional Cantonese dishes along with chop suey and chow mein. Ronnie Lee and partner Kin Wah Choi took over the space in 1975 and, a year in, found chicken chow won ton to be one of the more popular dishes. Before opening this restaurant, Lee was a chef at the New Moon Restaurant in Olympia Fields and before that was chef in the Dang Ho restaurant in Chicago. Choi worked in Hong Kong before coming to the United States in 1963. The two partners met while working at the Dragon Gate restaurant in Hong Kong in 1958.   

Jill Wagner

Part owner Kin Wah Choi in the kitchen, preparing a Cantonese dish.