After 33 Years, Mi La Cay Turns Out The Lights In Seattle's Chinatown

Trinh Ong spent Monday behind the counter of Mi La Cay, watching a line of customers stretch past the front door as neighbors arrived for one last bowl of noodle soup. The Vietnamese restaurant in Seattle's Chinatown-International District is closing for good on Thursday, October 29, ending a run that began in 1993.

Ong and her brother, Ha Ong, operate the restaurant together. They are handing over the keys after decades of service to the neighborhood. "This is my second home. Love it," Trinh Ong said, adding that word of the closure had already spread through the community. "The past few days, they heard I'm closing. Everybody come."

Mi La Cay first opened in 1993 and moved to its current location in 2016. During the 1990s and early 2000s, Ong said, the surrounding district had fewer businesses, which kept shoppers coming to the area. "So, people were still traveling to Chinatown to get groceries, to eat, because Chinatown is where the most authentic food is at," she said.

The restaurant made it through the COVID-19 pandemic. Ong said she and her brother handled both the dining room and the kitchen to keep the doors open and cover rent and overhead. The volume of customers did not return to pre-pandemic levels. "We were non-stop from opening to closing," Ong said. "Yeah. But now we don't have that wave anymore."

Several factors contributed to the decision to close. Ong pointed to competition outside the district, changes in customer traffic, and her own health issues. The area around 12th Avenue South and South Jackson Street has also seen crime and open drug activity. "It takes time to get to where it is right now, but I know it will take time to get out of what it is right now," Ong said of those conditions.

Customers returning this week recalled how long the restaurant had been part of their routine. A customer identified as Alvin said he first learned about the eatery from someone else, adding, "Ever since we first came, we love it." The Ong family has invited longtime patrons to visit before the closing date. Ong, who was born in Vietnam, said of the district: "Vietnam is where I was born, but this is my home and this is my community here."

The closure removes one of the older Vietnamese restaurants from the Chinatown-International District, a neighborhood that has operated for decades as a center for groceries and traditional food. Mi La Cay operated for 33 years in the area, including 10 years in its current space. The final day of service is Thursday, October 29.