707 replies to this topic

[gstc84]

I'm an Ontario kid, so some of it is nostalgia for me. I often say that I would love if we had Harvey's, East Side Marios and Second Cup here, and how much I miss them. But if they actually opened...I'd probably still go to Big Wheel, Pag's and Habit instead. 

 

I was so excited when Cora's opened here because that was the premier breakfast place back east and there was always an hour-long lineup. But Victoria has so many amazing local breakfast places that why would I waste my money at Cora's? I've gone maybe 3-4 times since they opened here in 2012.

[zoomer]

Exactly gstc84! Victoria likes to market itself as the brunch capital of Canada, heck there is even a cookbook on that topic. Long lineups are outside local places, like Jam or Blue Fox, not Denny's or Cora.

[RFS]

Dennys is frequently packed and often has a full waiting area

[Rob Randall]

For years we've tried to confirm the "most restaurants per capita" and the sources referred to each other. There was no original source.

 

Usually with these chain restaurants their advertising visuals are more appetizing than the actual food.

[Mike K.]

Oh yeah, I forgot about Moxies. Always busy in there.

[Nparker]

Oh yeah, I forgot about Moxies. Always busy in there.

For some reason, Moxies feels less "chain-ish", than other national brands.

[Mike K.]

So can we agree that any establishment that’s well liked will be busy, chain or no chain?

[aastra]

Countless places claim most restaurants per capita or second-most restaurants per capita. An old article about Victoria claimed "second-most upscale restaurants per capita after San Francisco."

 

 

Travel to most city websites around the net and you'll be surprised by how many purport to have more restaurants per capita than anywhere else. This is claimed by San Francisco; Madison, Wisconsin; Washington DC; and Shreveport, Louisiana. At least Canadian cities stake the same claim.

 

 

Victoria. This city on Vancouver Island and capital city of British Columbia, Canada regularly makes the claim that it has the "second highest number of restaurants per capita," which is perhaps clever psychology as the city has never indicted which is top.

 

 

Daily Colonist
November 23, 1932

...they (Vancouverites) actually boast... that they have more restaurants per capita than any other city in the world...

 

--

 

 

^So that would have been on what is now the Arena/curling club parking lot.

 

I remember it as being across the street.

Edited by aastra, 08 March 2024 - 07:56 PM.

[aastra]

 

It seems it was only 12 year old data comparing the number of McDonalds per capita between Winnipeg, Victoria and Burnaby - not established!!

 

You cut me deep. Halifax and Regina were also mentioned.

[Rob Randall]

I remember it as being across the street.

 

Odd number so yes, you are correct. It's just that the site is now occupied by an apartment building behind tall trees so It's hard to imagine something urban like a fast food burger joint supplanted by bucolic residential. Usually it's the other way around.

[aastra]

I'm pretty sure Burger Chef opened in the circled building. They didn't build a new building for it.*

 

 

crop of https://vintageairphotos.com/1-69/

--
*I was mistaken

Edited by aastra, 08 March 2024 - 07:32 PM.

[Rob Randall]

If you look up 2017 Quadra you get a 1969 City of Victoria building demo permit which was the year of that Burger Chef ad.

[Victoria Watcher]

that's impressive.   as burgers were only discovered in about 1965.

 

before then most ships had to go around cape horn.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 18 August 2020 - 07:01 PM.

[Rob Randall]

^Not true, back then all beef came through the Suet Canal.

[lanforod]

A big reason these chains - White spot, BP, Cora's, Denny's are so popular is that they cater well to families, particularly with kids in single digit ages. Pags, Blue Fox and Brasserie do not.

Edited by lanforod, 18 August 2020 - 08:12 PM.

[Victoria Watcher]

2020:

 

Future of McBarge parked in Maple Ridge revealed

 

2019:

 

A LOOK BACK AND INTO THE FUTURE OF VANCOUVER’S ICONIC MCBARGE

 

2017:

 

Vancouver's McBarge could become a Deep Ocean Discovery Centre

 

The McBarge, once a floating McDonald’s, preps for a new look under the sea

 

2016:

 

Could a refurbished McBarge find a new home in Victoria waters?

 

2015:

 

Derelict Expo 86 'McBarge' to set sail for mystery port after 30-year retirement

 

2014:

 

McBarge close to new life on Fraser as restaurant/pub in Mission

 

2013:

 

Is McBarge a disaster waiting to happen?

 

2012:

 

McBarge still in Burrard Inlet

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 30 December 2020 - 05:48 PM.

[Victoria Watcher]

Fox News:

 

 

 

 

Crime-riddled Canadian McDonald's that went viral for brawl involving a raccoon to close

 

'When you come here, you're afraid,' one resident said of the McDonald's location

 

 

 

https://www.foxbusin...g-raccoon-close

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 29 January 2023 - 09:54 AM.

[aastra]

I'd say it's about time we resolved the longstanding Burger Chef controversy, which has bitterly divided the forumers on this board for much too long. Back in August, 2020 we saw the following post by Rob Randall:

 

 

If you look up 2017 Quadra you get a 1969 City of Victoria building demo permit which was the year of that Burger Chef ad.

 

However, another highly respected but not infallible forumer claimed to remember the Burger Chef was operating out of an existing old but renovated storefront at the corner of Quadra and Pembroke.

 

It seems that Rob Randall was correct. Burger Chef built a new building. So an old storefront (shown in the vintage 1951 aerial pic that aastra posted) was torn down to build the new Burger Chef building, which was itself torn down just a few years later to build the apartment building which currently occupies the site. Thus proving yet again that nothing ever changes in Victoria, as long as you don't consider three different buildings occupying the same site in the span of ~ten years to be indicative of change.

I remain confused as to why Burger Chef and Burger King were regularly getting pounded, roasted, grilled, and flame-broiled* by city council even as McDonald's, Dairy Queen, and Kentucky Fried Chicken seemed to be getting a free pass.

 

*no puns intended

 

 

Daily Colonist
April 5, 1972

City Committee Fires Broadside

Food Chains, Oil Firms Hit

The Burger Chef drive-in restaurant on Quadra near Central Park changed plans after construction. What was originally a pleasant design, now was "garish and horrible".

Mayor Peter Pollen raised the question of free-standing food chain outlets. He particularly referred to the Burger Chef restaurant.

Design changes made after the building was completed, Pollen said, hadn't been indicated in the plans originally submitted to city hall. The result was that a pleasant design turned into a "garish and horrible" design.

 

--

 

The following picture is from the Daily Colonist, August 12, 1975:

 

 

--

The following ad is from the Daily Colonist, July 1, 1970:

 

 

--

 

 

Daily Colonist
January 28, 1970

Drive-In Fails In Zoning Bid

Victoria city council has rejected a bid to rezone four residential lots at Hillside and Doncaster for use as the site of a Burger Chef drive-in.

Council endorsed the stand of the Advisory Planning Commission, which wants to stop commercial development on Hillside west of Doncaster.

The rezoning application was made by General Foods Ltd. on four lots reaching from Hillside to Myrtle, bounded on the east by Doncaster.

 

--

Edited by aastra, 29 January 2023 - 01:28 PM.

[aastra]

^The Burger Chef map provides us with another example of the Blanshard/Blanchard thing. Not to mention the tasty and delicious irony of McDonald Supply going into an abandoned Burger Chef location.

[aastra]

Is it just me or did that "garish and horrible" Burger Chef on Quadra Street look quite similar to the Beacon Drive-In? I assume Mr. Pollen was complaining about the rear portion of the building more than the storefront (a big assumption, I know).