A Nearly 90-Year-Old Chinatown Restaurant Has Expanded
Wo Hop, which first opened in Chinatown in 1938 and has remained a presence in the neighborhood, has expanded — the first extension in its nearly 90 years in operation. The longtime downstairs basement restaurant has added an entirely new restaurant storefront at street level, with a sleek look that brings the restaurant into a new era.
According to neighborhood group Welcome to Chinatown, which advocates for local businesses, the reason for the additional storefront wasn't just about more seating: It 'answers a practical need' to make the subterranean restaurant more accessible to its 'longtime patrons, now in their 50s, 60s, and older, to continue dining at Wo Hop without climbing a steep staircase,' a spokesperson says. But the original location has long served its purpose. 'Perhaps its hidden location helped it resist the changing fashions of Chinatown above, as most chop suey houses vanished by the 1960s,' according to a Welcome to Chinatown release.
When the upstairs tenant vacated, the team took over for a dual 17 Mott Street venture. The new space is a collaboration with David Leung, the second-generation owner of Wo Hop, and T.K. Justin Ng, a Chinatown-born architect (who also designed Welcome to Chinatown's office hub).
Wo Hop is not to be confused with Wo Hop Next Door, also on Mott Street, which has nuances in its distinct ownership tree and a slightly different menu. It's also often considered the more touristy one; in an interview with Resy, Joanne Kwong, Pearl River Mart president, said: 'Don't trust anyone who says they like both.' The rivalry continues.
Wo Hop has weathered a lot: most recently, during COVID, when Chinatown in particular was affected by xenophobia and decreased foot traffic. And now, even as the neighborhood has sprung back to life, its tenure has become all the more notable in the face of encroaching gentrification. An investment in an expansion is an investment in keeping Chinatown alive.
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Molly Merchant, 22, of Wheaton got involved with The People's Lobby through local campaign work, and has worked for the organization on facilitating turnout for environmental justice and public transit-related events, an issue she has a personal stake in. Merchant and her roommate bought a car last year, she said, but it was wrecked in an accident just a few months later. She's saving up again for a new one, but said getting around is a lot more difficult for the time being. 'I had to rely on, like, rides from friends just to get to classes, and I had to ask my aunts to drive me to the grocery store because I didn't have a car anymore and I couldn't afford Ubers,' Merchant said. Groups like The People's Lobby say they want an expansion of the public transit system currently offered in the suburbs. But doing so would be expensive, Pierog noted, since it would be a newer system than Chicago and would therefore require more infrastructure to be built. And it would be a learning curve for Kane County residents, she said, to get accustomed to taking mass transit rather than using a car to get around. In addition to its Metra stations, Kane County currently has fixed bus route service provided by Pace, as well as on-demand service in some areas, the Pace Vanpool ridesharing service and Americans with Disabilities Act-mandated paratransit, per the agency's website. But a lack of robust public transit further reinforces access issues, Rep. Hernandez said, when individuals in the area don't use the transit available. 'Instead of trying to find other ways to reach people (when there's a route with low ridership), I feel like they just do the quick way of, 'Let me just remove this route out of the picture,' unfortunately, leaving people without that transportation and leaving people to rely more on their cars. … I'm hoping that with (new transit legislation), it could help fix that, and it could make people go back to public transportation.' Funding for future projects also remains uncertain. For example, a Metra station in Oswego has been a priority for the community for nearly three decades, according to Village Administrator Dan Di Santo. Most recently, he said, U.S. Rep. Lauren Underwood, D-Naperville, directed some funds toward an environmental assessment for a possible BNSF line extension into Kendall County. The community is also considering whether the Metra train could run on the Illinois Railway line instead, which wouldn't require laying additional tracks. The BNSF Metra commuter line — which runs between Chicago's Union Station and Aurora — sees the highest ridership of all the area Metra lines. According to data from the RTA, the BNSF line provided over 650,000 rides in April 2025. Comparatively, the Union Pacific West Line, which goes into Geneva with a last stop in Elburn, saw 345,794 rides in April. But, ridership is still down significantly since before the COVID-19 pandemic, when the BNSF line, for example, typically gave over 1 million rides in any given month. Kendall County is not deemed a collar county, meaning it doesn't currently have a say in the transit agencies' decisions. But Di Santo said, despite the current state budget concerns, his community is prepared to ride out the fiscal uncertainty when it comes to transit. 'We're in it for the long game,' Di Santo said. 'When we did our last study, it was during COVID. … They said, 'Is there even going to be commuter rail service?' … And now it's a fiscal cliff.' Both Metra and Pace have stated they'll be operating as though the budget gap will not be filled — for now at least. Per a memo from the RTA in March, budget scenarios, including service reductions and fare increases, are to be developed by the service boards — the CTA, Metra and Pace — from July through September. Public notice of cuts to existing service would be announced between September and October, and initial layoff notices could also begin during that time frame. The service boards are to present their budgets to the RTA board in November for adoption of a 2026 regional transit operating budget and 2026-2030 capital program in December. Per the RTA's proposed timeline, schedule changes and cuts could begin in 2026. Metra spokesperson Michael Gillis said it can only use known sources of revenue as it begins the 2026 budget process, but is 'hopeful' that Springfield will identify new funding solutions. He said Metra has not identified what exactly service reductions would look like, and said the agency could not yet provide details on how Kane County might be impacted. Pace, too, is beginning its budget process 'based on the funding currently available,' according to spokesperson Maggie Daly Skogsbakken, 'with hope and determination that additional support will be secured later this year.'
