- [Announcer 2] And now "Rob on the Road" exploring Northern California.

- There's a beloved landmark in Woodland, California that holds a special place in thousands of hearts, and now in restaurant history.

The Chicago Cafe on Main Street thrives amid the traces of Woodland's one time Chinatown.

Plaques outside the back door honor days gone by.

- [Paul] Hey, how you doing, Frank?

- [Rob] But inside the Fong family has found the secret recipe to feed the masses and the soul.

How long have you been coming here?

- Oh my, oh my, oh my.

Since 1939.

- From the name alone, you'd never guess the living history we found inside.

- Nothing special, just nothing fancy.

Just the restaurant is for the customer, the worker people.

- You've been here a very long time.

- [Paul] Been here 50 year.

I come here in 1973.

- And that's you.

- Yeah.

- But this place... - This place 120.

My grandfather started, and my father.

Now it's my turn.

- [Rob] Paul Fong takes his turn seriously at the family-owned Chicago Cafe where he and his wife Nancy, have spent the past five decades together building this business and their family's future.

Chicago Cafe is as authentic as it gets.

A retro diner appeal, affordable specials, countertop eating with swivel stools, and mementos everywhere you look, including menus more than 100 years old.

Fried salmon, 30 cents.

Halibut, 30 cents.

- [Paul] Yeah.

(laughing) - I mean apple pie, 5 cents.

5 cents.

Wow.

Four generations of the Fong family have worked here, starting with Paul's grandfather in 1903.

What do you feel has been the magic that has kept this food so popular?

- The only thing is fresh.

When you order, we go cook, but only one.

I still serve it the old style with (indistinct) So the customers still come all from Sacramento, San Francisco, Dakota, the old fashioned chow mein.

- I love that.

I love that.

- I still serve it like that.

- [Rob] And everything here is so fresh and your booths are full.

The kitchen is Grand Central.

Many customers walk in the back door and right by chefs Paul and Nancy Fong, who are so busy cooking, they had no idea they were making history.

- [Jack] They didn't include Asian businesses, they didn't include Asian residences.

There was a segregation.

- [Rob] This is UCV Davis professor Jack Chin leading a multidisciplinary group of students to document the Chicago Cafe's past.

Professor Chin's findings have put Chicago Cafe on the map.

- It's been extra special.

You know, I think we're starting to kind of realize how special it is.

Like, you know, my brother and I grew up kind of looking at that sign saying since 1903, but it never really sunk in until Professor Chin kind of started doing that research and we found out that we were, you know, the oldest in California and in the nation.

- [Rob] And that's legit.

This is real.

It's all been checked.

It's been confirmed.

And this professor is highly esteemed.

He did his research, checked everything out and confirmed that this is the oldest continuously running Chinese restaurant.

- Yeah.

In California.

They said maybe the whole United States.

- [Rob] Yes, that's the most interesting part to me is that this study, it's not just California, which would be huge in and of itself, but nationwide.

And it's you.

- Yeah.

Not Me.

(laughing) - But it is.

- My family.

- It's running because of you today.

- The family, yeah.

- [Rob] And you have your wife, she's working here.

And your children, however, are not going to keep this going.

- No, no.

I'm the last one.

Sorry.

(laughing) - Chicago combo?

- Right here.

- And then another.

- Yes.

- [Server] All right, guys.

- You know we have to talk about the future.

And while this isn't going anywhere, we do have to talk about your generation because you're in the medical field, your brother is in the IT field.

Y'all aren't coming back to the restaurant.

- I know.

Yeah.

My dad apparently sat us down when we were younger, and my brother told me this, I clearly didn't remember it apparently, and he said, you two are not going to do this.

We are working this hard so that you guys don't have to do this.

So yeah, we both kind of went to college, you know, with no pressure from them, actually, luckily.

So yeah, we just kind of branched into our different fields and nobody's circling back to the restaurant right now.

So yeah, my parents are just trying to, you know, keep it up as best they can, and we don't know what the future will hold.

- I have to tell you something.

I heard, when I asked you, you know, why, and what it is that keeps you going, and you said, "Making a living."

But the real word I heard is living, because you immediately went into all the special stories.

So it's not really making a living, it's about making a life.

- Yeah, that too.

(laughing) (bell ringing)