Chinese Restaurants on Albert Street
Downtown Dining
In 1921, Chinese living in and around Ottawa owned 16 restaurants, however they didn’t cater food to the Chinese population, and wouldn’t have seemed Chinese in appearance to a passer-by. With names like Capital Lunch, Boston Café, Ontario Restaurant and Harry’s, they aimed to serve the food that the white locals in Ottawa would enjoy. These businesses, although owned and staffed largely with Chinese employees, hired Caucasian wait-staff to keep up this facade.
Despite their numbers, these Chinese owned restaurants faced discrimation similar to that which early laundries were dealing with. In 1916, rumors spread claiming that Chinese restaurants were the breeding ground for infectious diseases. This caused the Health Department to demand physical checks of the restaurants. Restauranteurs stood against this, and with the Chinese consul were able to cancel the checks. However, the claims required that the restaurants in question campaign to save their public image, leading them to publish ads in the Ottawa Journal to dispell the rumors.
While Ottawa was experiencing various set-backs in the restaurant industry, in the nearby cities of Toronto and Montreal, Chinese food was growing in popularity into the 1940s. Soon the demand for these new flavours came to Ottawa, prompting the opening of several Szechuan and Cantonese styled Chinese restaurants.
Staples of Albert Street Cuisine
William Joe, son of Shung Joe, the proprietor of several laundromat businesses in Ottawa, and head of one of the Chinese original families set up in the city, took over ownership of the Cathay Chop Suey Palace in early 1947. The Cathay had originally had both a “Chinese” and a “Canadian” kitchen to cater to both preferences, however it grew popular as a spot for politicians to frequent for a Chinese lunch- much like it’s neighbour the Canton Inn. Long after most Chinese businesses left the area, the Cathay House stayed. Although William Joe left the restaurant business in 1985, the restaurant remained open until 2010.
Despite closing down in 1976, the legacy of the Canton Inn, opened by Montreal restauranteur Stanley Wong, remains in the Golden Palace, the longest standing Chinese restaurant in Ottawa. The Golden Palace was originally started by men who had worked for Stanley Wong at the Canton. This tradition of branching off from original restaurants was also seen in with William Joe’s Cathay, where many of his former workers went on to establish other Chinese restaurants around Ottawa.
