Larry Louie, whose father started the Golden Star Restaurant on Orchard Avenue, said that one of the Golden Dragon’s four partners returned to China, another started the Golden Star and the other two started the Twin Dragon – each taking half of the Golden Dragon name. Its family tree dates to the old Louie’s Golden Dragon, a Boise institution at the corner of Eighth and Grove streets.

Thirty-two years is a long time in the restaurant business, but the Twin Dragon has been around even longer than that. “I want to relax and spend some time with my family instead of working every day.” “I’m getting older now, and I need to take it easy,” he told me. Owner James Lam, who has kept it going for 32 years, is hanging up his apron. If a buyer isn’t found, the Twin Dragon will close in March.

Steam was said to have risen from the top of my head. No meal at the Twin Dragon was complete without my bandmates and our girlfriends egging me on to slather a slice of pork with way too much of the stuff. Our orders invariably included Chinese pork and seeds, served with the fiery Chinese mustard for which such establishments are famous, or, in my case, infamous.

Fairview Avenue, were night-owl magnets in that part of town. Milo’s Torch Cafe and the Twin Dragon, 2200 W. Boise was much smaller then there weren’t many places that stayed open that late. We went there after the dances we played, which ended at midnight. Some of my earliest memories of the Twin Dragon restaurant, a Boise institution soon to be a memory, are of going there as a teenager in a rock group.

Golden star menu boise