Restaurant has blossomed into busy spot over 28 years

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This article was published 27/12/2015 (3926 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

On Jan. 1, a woman phoned 4 Seasons Chinese Food wanting to place a takeout order for New Year’s Eve.

Cathy Rickner, one half of the brother-and-sister team that has operated the Southdale pickup-and-delivery spot since it opened in September 1988, wondered aloud if the person at the other end of the line had her holidays mixed up and didn’t realize Dec. 31, 2014 had already come and gone.

“I told her, ‘Last night was New Year’s Eve. Are you sure you don’t mean New Year’s Day?’ ” said Rickner, seated in her brightly lit waiting area near a red, wood-carved sign that says “Thank you” in Chinese.

The caller assured Rickner she meant New Year’s Eve. More specifically, Dec. 31, 2015.

 

After asking a few more questions, Rickner determined the woman had originally intended to place an order for the previous night. But because the time slots she was interested in were fully booked by the time she contacted the restaurant in late November, she had been forced to make alternate plans. By calling Jan. 1, she explained, she was hoping she wouldn’t be in the same pickle 364 days down the road.

“It’s not that uncommon for New Year’s Eve orders to start coming in around August or September, but January? Yeah, that was a new one,” Rickner said with a laugh.

 

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Rickner chuckled again when she began to tell the story of how she “met” Walter Yee, her brother and business partner.

Their parents were born in China. Their father, Yuen Ark Yee, moved to Winnipeg to start a new life in the mid-1950s, leaving behind his wife, Fung Ha Yee, and their three young children, Philip, Walter and Marion. Fung Ha joined Yuen Ark here in 1959, but six more years passed before their kids were able to immigrate to Canada, too. By which time, Rickner — the only child in the family born on Canadian soil — was attending kindergarten.

‘It’s not that uncommon for New Year’s Eve orders to start coming in around August or September, but January? Yeah, that was a new one’

— Cathy Rickner

“All of a sudden these three other people showed up, and I was like, ‘What? Who the heck are they?’ ” Rickner said, playfully slapping her brother’s lap.

“I swear, I think the only reason my parents had me was because they weren’t sure if the rest of their children were ever going to make it over, and they wanted somebody to keep them company.”

For years, Rickner and Yee’s father worked at a grocery mart owned by their great-uncle. In 1979, the elder Yee opened a similar enterprise, establishing Yee’s Chinese Grocery Store on Pacific Avenue, across the street from the triplex Rickner and Yee grew up in.

Everybody in the family worked at the store, but after Philip, the eldest sibling, succeeded their father as boss, Rickner and Yee decided it was time to strike out on their own.

“We didn’t know anything about the restaurant biz, but our aunt and uncle, who were recently retired, had operated a Chinese food restaurant in Newmarket, Ont., for years, so we asked them to give us a hand getting things off the ground,” said Rickner.

“My dad came out of retirement, too — he was Superman, washing the rice, peeling and deveining the shrimp, making all the won tons — and my mom eventually joined us, as well.”

Thing was, the calendar on the wall read 1988, but their relatives’ menu, which Rickner and Yee were using as a template, was firmly rooted in the early ’70s.

“It was very simple — very westernized, almost everything deep-fried, and the only vegetable you could get was bok choy,” Rickner said.

“So we thought to ourselves, ‘This is not going to go,’ and we began experimenting and adding more creative dishes to bring everything up to date.”

Business at 4 Seasons might be brisk nowadays — according to online reviews, three-hour waits aren’t out of the question most Friday and Saturday nights — but that wasn’t the case early on, Rickner said. For the first few years, she and her brother both held other jobs in order to make ends meet.

“Walter got on part time with the post office, and as soon as he was done there, he worked full time as a baby photographer. So by the time he got here at 4 (p.m.), he’d already been going since 5 (a.m.),” she said.

“I had started making jewelry to sell for fun when I was working at the grocery store, but when we were starting out here, I was doing it more to supplement my income.”

 

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You’ve probably heard about expat Winnipeggers who wouldn’t dream of leaving town without a Jeanne’s cake, Gondola pizza or loaf of Kub bread tucked under their arm after they travel here to visit their loved ones. The same thing applies at 4 Seasons, Rickner said.

“There are a lot of people who stop in on their way to the airport to pick up eight orders of won tons or breaded veal to take home with them,” she said.

“One time a friend of mine was on a flight to Toronto when she spotted the person next to her with a bag of our food on her lap. My buddy reached into her carry-on, pulled out her own (bag) and said, ‘Look! Me, too.’ “

Although 4 Seasons — located at 35 Lakewood Blvd., in Southdale Centre — only offers free delivery within a designated area, that didn’t dissuade a party from Coral Harbour, Nunavut from placing a $1,000 catering order a couple of years ago, which they had shipped up north aboard a cargo jet.

Rickner used the word “rock” to describe what 4 Seasons has meant to her through the years.

The restaurant was there for her in 2011, when the Royalwood house she shared with her husband, Adam Rickner, and their daughter, Skye, burned to the ground after a fire broke out in the garage.

It was there in 2012, where her father and eldest brother died within weeks of one another. And it was still there in March 2014, when her spouse — whom readers may remember from his TV days as the voice of the Beave, a puppet that co-hosted Bundy’s Late Night Revue and MTN Kids Club with Kevin Bundy — died suddenly at the age of 51.

“After Adam passed away, my daughter said ‘Don’t worry, Mom; if there’s one thing we can always count on, it’s 4 Seasons,” Rickner said.

By the way, if you’re one of the lucky ones who have already placed your New Year’s Eve order for Tai Dop Voy, Loong Duong Zhiu Fa or any of the other specialties on the 4 Seasons menu, be sure to wish Rickner a happy birthday on your way in or out of the restaurant Thursday.

“Twenty-eight years,” Rickner said, when she was asked how long it’s been since she celebrated her birthday on the day it falls on. “But really, it’s no big deal. We’ve always taken Mondays off, so, at the very worst, I usually get my cake a few days later.

“But I do have some customers who always remember (New Year’s Eve) is my birthday and, when they come to pick up their food, they arrive with a box of chocolates or some flowers.”

david.sanderson@freepress.mb.ca