For decades, Sai Woo Chop Suey was where Chinatown residents gathered for good old-fashioned 20th-century Cantonese cuisine.

On October 2, its modern successor, Sai Woo, will open the new Woo Lounge below the dining room.

The venue will try to recreate the illicit atmosphere of the fabled underground opium dens that were present in the neighbourhood more than 100 years ago. DJs will be in the bar on Friday and Saturday nights to set the tone.

The upstairs restaurant opened in March. The bar will be overseen Salli Patemen, who used to be at Yaletown's Section (3), which was a favourite watering hole in its heyday.

It's worth noting that opium in Chinatown has played a significant role in the history of the country.

The opium dealers in the early 20th century were licensed but that came to an end after the race riots in Vancouver's Chinatown and Japantown in 1907.

The turmoil was investigated by a future prime minister, Mackenzie King, who decided to make a big issue of drug use. It brought him in contact with decision makers in several countries.

King eventually convinced Parliament to ban nonmedical uses of the narcotic. It was an early salvo in what mushroomed into a broader war on drugs that continues to this day.

(Anyone interested in learning more about this aspect of Vancouver's history would enjoy historian Julie Gilmour's 2014 book Trouble on Main Street: Mackenzie King, Reason, Rase, and the 1907 Vancouver Riots.)