East Bay Times Article
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Once known as “the Little Paris of the Delta,” the tiny Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta town of Isleton boasted a vibrant Chinatown and adjacent Japantown where restaurants, gambling and dance halls, saloons, boarding houses, opium dens and brothels flourished.
Chinese and Japanese laborers transformed the Delta’s peat soil into rich fertile farmland more than 100 years ago, then later worked in the canneries there. They built a lively Main Street west of the town’s business district, although twice — in 1915 and 1926 — the clapboard buildings and wooden sidewalks burned to the ground.
But discriminatory legislation halted the immigration of the Chinese, and later, during World War II, the Japanese-Americans were taken to internment camps, many never to return. Eventually, the fertile fields of asparagus, pears and corn gave way to grape vineyards as old ways of life faded and the once-colorful wooden and pressed-tin buildings were boarded up, some destroyed by fire, others weathered by time.
But in today’s Chinatown, just a stone’s throw from the boarded-up Bing Kong Tong community center, a new business — a tap room with a pressed-tin exterior that harks back to the town’s Chinese roots — is now helping to infuse life into the struggling downtown.
“Isleton has had some tough times, so just seeing anything new opening was exciting,” says Galen Kusic, a regular customer from nearby Rio Vista. “Something as high-quality as this business, this was pretty special.”
At the corner of Main and F streets, the former Chinese gambling hall and brothel is now a thriving and award-winning tap room for local craft beers called the Mei Wah Beer Room. Designed with the building’s past in mind, the business oozes history, its entrance plastered with historic photos from the Delta, its interior decorated in hand-selected vintage Asian decor.
Mei Wah, which opened in 2017, recently was named in a Yelp poll as No. 10 in popularity for bars in California, and No. 33 in the United States, owing to its atmosphere and collection of craft brews. Restaurant Guru also named it “Best in the city” in the 2019 pub and bar category.
The kudos blow Oakland transplant and Mei Wah owner Iva Walton away. A former tile contractor, Walton, 60, was looking to retire and launch a new career in craft beers in Oakland, but it was too expensive there and the market was saturated. She often visited the Delta, but didn’t think about locating a business there until a date she had brought for a first visit there later saw an advertisement for the Mei Wah building.
“I had always loved that building,” Walton said. “… We both fell in love with it and ended up purchasing it with the idea of creating a tap room.”
The Chin family, early Isleton settlers who owned many buildings in town, gave it the name Mei Wah, which means “Chinese in America,” or “beautiful place,” depending on your interpretation, Walton said.
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