Of the two words on the front of 2877 University Avenue, the bigger one is not the restaurant's name. The Fong family put "Chop Suey" across their North Park building in larger letters than "Pekin Cafe," a choice San Diego Magazine traces back to how popular the Chinese-American dish was when the restaurant opened. The magazine says that neon has been dark for seven years.
Most people on University between Utah and 30th have walked past it since 2019 without thinking about how close it came to disappearing. When an old storefront goes dark, a sign like this usually comes down with the lease. This one stayed up because the family that owns the building held on to it until they found an operator who wanted the neon.
A permit for $250 in July 1931
The North Park Historical Society's March 2019 meeting notes date the Pekin Cafe to July 1931 and say it ran continuously until it closed in 2019. NBC 7 San Diego reported that Leo Fong and two friends opened it, and that nearly nine decades later the Fong family, including Kenneth and Maria Fong, was still running it.
The sign is as old as the restaurant. In 2019, Historical Society researchers found three notices in the Evening Tribune that pin down its installation:
| Date | Permit notice | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| July 10, 1931 | Building permit, S.D. Neon Sign Co. | Electric sign, 2877 University, $250 |
| July 10, 1931 | Electrical permit, S.D. Neon Sign Co. | 2877 University, four transformers |
| July 11, 1931 | Electrical permit, wiring for Pekin Cafe | Four transformers on the sign |
The same researchers matched today's facade to a drawing of the building in a Pekin Cafe advertisement in the San Diego Union on July 14, 1935. That means the storefront on University today is essentially the one shoppers saw during the Depression. The restaurant was later renamed The Peking Cafe, but the neon kept its original spelling.
The retirement announcement that started a preservation scramble
In December 2018, Ken Fong told ABC 10News the owners planned to retire. The station reported the restaurant would stay open through Chinese New Year and close in March 2019, after 88 years.
The closing left the sign's future an open question. At its March 21, 2019 meeting, the North Park Historical Society noted that the Fongs owned the building and were working to find a new operator for a compatible business. North Park Main Street had told the family that keeping the facade and neon would matter a great deal to the community. The Society's notes are frank about the uncertainty. Nobody knew whether the family wanted a historic designation or planned to keep the sign.
The Society asked city Historical Resources Board staff whether the neighborhood could rely on the city having already told the owners how important the sign was. Staff replied that their talks with the owners had been verbal, with nothing in writing, and that a formal nomination might be the best way to get the property and sign evaluated and preserved. The Society noted that writing a nomination would take a substantial amount of work.
So as of 2019, there was a neighborhood consensus that the sign should stay, a verbal conversation with the city, and an owner who could have let it go.
What actually kept it there
The family kept it. San Diego Magazine reports that three generations of Fongs ran the restaurant from 1931 to 2019. When the last generation retired, the family held on to the space and waited for the right successor.
They picked Jacquelyn Kelly and Jason Bess, who are turning the building into Chop Suey Lounge & Ginger Roots. Kelly described the first meeting to San Diego Magazine:
"We met the Fong family, and it was just like, 'Oh my God How can we preserve this and tack on to their legacy that they've already had for 88 years?'"
The building's legal status is less clear than you might expect. A WhatNow report from April 2026, based on the owners' press release, says the 3,500-square-foot venue preserves the building's "historically designated exterior." The 2019 Historical Society notes treat designation as something that might happen, not something that had. The building's designation status remains unresolved in the public record. What both documents agree on is that the sign got through the dark years with the family still owning the building, and that the operator they chose plans to keep it.
What's planned for the inside
According to San Diego Magazine, the front room will be Chop Suey Lounge, serving upscale Chinese-inspired finger foods with live music and entertainment. The back room will be Ginger Roots, a reservation-only chef's table with its own Pan-Asian tasting menu. WhatNow puts the chef's table and private dining room at eight seats and lists live jazz, DJs and rotating local entertainment for the lounge. Kelly told San Diego Magazine the space came with a cabaret license, which is part of why entertainment is central to the plan.
The partners split the work along their experience. Kelly has more than 15 years in hospitality, including eight at CH Projects. WhatNow says Bess spent two decades in corporate HVAC and plumbing. They're working with interior designer Sally Rodrigues of Crave Design Company and architect Chris Bord of Room & Bord. The press release puts the restoration at $2 million. It also names earlier stewards of the cafe the project means to honor, including Kway Chew, the Fong family and Frank Chan.
December is a target, not a date
San Diego Magazine's April 15, 2026 report says the sign will light up again in December "if things go well." That's the most recent public timeline. As of late October, the Chop Suey Lounge website says only "Coming Soon," with no opening date.
A $2 million rebuild of a building from the early 1930s, with a cabaret component, has plenty of points where the schedule can slip. If the neon comes on in December, the project will have hit a target its own owners hedged in the spring. If it comes on in January or later, that fits the same hedge.
The block it would relight
The lounge would reopen onto a stretch of University that has changed a lot this year. Eater San Diego's October 2026 heatmap of the best new restaurants includes two places a few blocks east.
- Carne and Hueso, 3140 University Ave. #102, opened by sisters Chantelle and Crystal Godinez, with a menu of Indigenous dishes from Puebla, Jalisco and Oaxaca.
- One of Us, 3085 University Ave., a gastropub built around women's sports, open since July 16.
Closer to the Pekin, North Park Main Street listed a late-October ribbon cutting for French Lit at 2917 University Ave. The shop was founded by neighborhood resident Genevieve Crain and sells apparel, vintage and designer resale, and goods from independent makers. It's about half a block from the dark neon.
The corridor has lost businesses too. Axios San Diego reported that Breakfast Republic's original North Park location closed on Aug. 9. Parent company Rise & Shine Hospitality Group cited expiring leases and its growth plans. The Pekin building took a different route. The family that owned it kept the building and waited for the right successor.
Seeing it before the switch flips
The sign is easiest to study up close in daylight, on foot. North Park Main Street has community cleanups on Saturday, Nov. 14 and Saturday, Dec. 12. The November one meets at North Park Union Cowork from 10 a.m. to noon, with supplies provided. That December date falls in the same month the lounge is aiming to open. When you pass 2877 University, the sign overhead is the one San Diego Neon Sign Co. put up under its $250 permit in July 1931.
What a North Park building is worth depends on its history and how much of it survives, from a 1931 storefront to the original details in a Craftsman bungalow. If you own a property with that kind of character and want to know what it's worth today, The Dream Homes Team can give you a valuation based on neighborhood sales, not portal averages. Request a Free Home Valuation and we'll walk you through the numbers.
