Putting down the chopsticks for good

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This article was published 02/04/2018 (2777 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

After nearly 50 years of serving Chinese food in St. James, Marigold restaurants is closing its west Portage Avenue location for good.

At its height, the family business — started by the late Wally Woo — operated eight restaurants under the Marigold banner around the city. The restaurant at 2591 Portage Ave. was the second to open and the favourite of Woo, who died July 1 at age 82.

When the restaurant — located at the opposite end of the block known for the “It’s a Long Tramp” mural — closes after its final day of business on May 7, only three Marigolds will remain open.

After his father’s death, operating the St. James restaurant fell to Richie Woo, but he’s busy running the Inkster Boulevard location, so it was decided to close the former.

It was a tough decision, he said.

“When you build your business with the devotion that he had, it’s hard to let go under any circumstance,” he said of his father. “Health issues forced him to retire, and the restaurant has not been the same without him.”

When he was young, Richie remembers watching his father at the Portage Avenue location, where Wally spent most of his working life.

“My father would walk in and put on his uniform, the white apron, and get down to business. His work ethic was unparalleled,” he said. “Whether it was helping in the kitchen or talking to customers, there was always a lesson to be learned watching him.”

Jean Giesbrecht, who served as Wally’s right-hand woman at the location, said it has been “a really great place to work.”

“Wally was a great boss and a great guy. He was very gregarious. We had a lot of customers over the years that came in specifically to chat with him, shoot the breeze, that kind of thing. People were always looking for him. He was excellent to work with,” Giesbrecht said.

“It’s like a family here. I still consider the extended Woo family like my own extended family. It’s been a good relationship. They’ve always treated me really well.”

Giesbrecht began working at the restaurant and lounge in August 1982. There are no plans for her to continue working at any of the other Marigold locations, so at age 58 she’ll be striking out into the job market for the first time in 35 years.

“It hasn’t really sunk in yet. The final day, when we lock the door, I think it’ll almost be an out-of-body experience. This place has been such a big part of my life. It’s all I’ve really known. It feels weird, as it does for the regulars, some of whom have been coming for as long as I’ve worked here. It’s going to be tough for them to find a new spot or watering hole. It’s like a big, dysfunctional family,” Giesbrecht said.

Wally, who was born in China, emigrated to Canada in 1950 at age 15, arriving alone and with $8 to his name. He opened the first Marigold on St. Mary’s Road in 1968. That restaurant, and the Osborne Street and Inkster Boulevard locations, will remain open.

News that the St. James restaurant is closing has been hard on many of the regulars who consider the place a second home, Giesbrecht said.

Since word started to spread, they have been exchanging contact information and ­trying to figure out where they’ll be able to meet up in the future.

“A lot of the regulars have become an extended family as well. Trying to keep in touch with so many varieties of people is going to be difficult to fit into my schedule.

“A lot of them are pretty shocked, sort of in disbelief and hoping it’s not true. I wouldn’t call it anger, but maybe dismay. This has been a stopping-off point for them for a lot of years,” Giesbrecht said.

“For some, it’s a generational thing. People just have connections to this place. Their parents would bring them here, now they bring their kids here. Or it’s been their stop on their way home from work for their whole careers. Just about everybody in St. James, I would think, at one time or another, has a connection to this place.”

ryan.thorpe@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @rk_thorpe