There were no Chinese restaurants in Midland before the Blue Star Inn came along – in fact, it seems like there were precious few restaurants of any kind, despite Midland being first a booming oil town, and later an important military base.

Chinese restaurants had been around in America since the 19th century, and were often renowned for their high standards – but racist attitudes caused them problems. By the mid 20th century the restaurants had evolved to serve a Chinese-American hybrid cuisine, mostly from the Canton region of Southern China, but sweetened and morphed to suit American palettes.

Joe Chung was running the Blue Star Inn in Fort Worth, Texas, when he fell in with Joe Jot, another Chinese chef nearby, and Richard Yee, who had come south from his family restaurant in Minnesota when he realized the market in places like Texas was wide open for Chinese restaurants.

The three men opened up the Blue Star Inn in Midland in 1952 – but not just to serve Chinese food. Unusually, the Inn also offered a full American menu, with steaks, chops, hamburgers and the like – to the point where some people never realized it was a Chinese restaurant.

Creative tension between Yee and Jot on the one hand, who favored focusing on food quality, and Chung on the other, who emphasized service and hospitality, meant the Blue Star Inn excelled in both.

The restaurant was an immediate hit – locals would wait up to 30 minutes for a table, just to try out the new place in town. But when curiosity eventually waned, Chung suggested sacrificing some of the dining area to install a grill, to let chefs cook dishes right in front of the diners – and the Blue Star Inn boomed. It eventually closed in the late 2000s.

Courtesy Harley Spiller Collection.

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