09/21/2017
We are excited and pleased to announce that Mr Chin was reanimated and began eating again on Sunday, September 17, 2017 for the first time in many years. We replaced the old fried flasher in the crawl space behind Mr Chin & Voila! Interesting too because we found ancient capacitors and homemade inductors in the electrical box where the flasher and transformer are housed. It appears that when the sign was installed in 1949, these electronics were added to suppress the static interference of the neon with the radio waves of the era.
Now, thanks to your generous support, all the existing neon works. We will add the last missing piece of neon soon and continue to make cosmetic improvements to the sign. Our hope is to move forward after that and repaint this lovely landmark in the spring.
We couldn't have gotten this far without your generous support. Presently, the plan is to suspend the campaign soon, and pick up where we left off in the spring. Good things take time it seems.
Please be sure to visit and check out the amazing northeastern Chinese cuisine that the new owner Wendy Li and her staff cook up up daily.
Thanks again to all for your enthusiastic support!
Chin's Kitchen, a classic Portland Chinese diner since 1949, reopened in July 2017. New owners are now serving authentic and delicious northeastern chinese cuisine! But Chin's also boasts one of the last artful and lovely animated neon signs left in town. With the City so quickly developing, we...
