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Where my family went out to eat is not necessarily where others went. However a look at the options around Calgary at that time may reveal patterns and trigger some fond memories.

My family did not eat ‘out’ much. We could not afford fancy restaurants nearly ever. But we would eat out once a week modestly, even when I was little, probably as a holiday for my mother We would go after church on Sunday to a hotel restaurant and have soup and sandwich. My sister and I often had a peanut butter sandwich at the Wales Hotel.

When I was a teen and my dad was away on business a lot, we often got take out from the Chinese food restaurant at Westbook Mall.   I think that experience of the 50s and 60s was common for my cohort though, where most meals were made at home. My dad would sometimes take us out to a bigger meal with wider family and favorite places were Linda Mae’s in Chinatown and Jade Palace across the street from it.   There was a wonderful Polynesian restaurant, the Beachcomber downtown, with dark lighting and an indoor garden and water feature as I recall.  It felt so posh.

Our family would sometimes go to pancake restaurants or fast food places, especially Dairy  Queen but it was only as a teen that I got familiar with the wider range of fast food places like A & W.

This means there were many types of eating places out there already. Here are the dates when some of them started.

1948 -McKay’s ice cream opens store in Cochrane, outside of Calgary

1950 – Dairy Lane café in West Hillhurst

1950 – Wales hotel has a coffee shop at 7 avenue and 2 street SW, there since 1930

1950s – Dairy Queen Café  in the northwest

1950s – F. W Woolworth soda fountain- on 8^th avenue, sit on stools

1951- Luke’s Drug mart has a soda fountain and pharmacy in Bridgeland

1952 – KFC original recipe

1955 – Hy’s steak house offers fine dining downtown

1955 – Purple Lantern Chinese restaurant on 4 street SW_ owner Ernie Poon

1956 – Blackfoot Truckstop diner

1956 – Phil’s pancake house

1956– A & W  with chubby chicken specialty and root beer served in mugs

1957- Burger Baron

1957– Kentucky Fried Chicken on Macleod Trail “ Barney’s”- Barney Gelfand operator

1958 – Chicken on the Way in Kensington

1959 – coffee shop in Lancaster Building specializes in cinnamon rolls

1959- the Dairy Bar operates in Ramsay

1959- Dickie Dee ice cream delivers products by tricycle and later by trucks with refrigeration units. It has ice cream, popsicles. Good Humor bars and often has bells, chimes or plays recognizable songs over a loud speaker. Children in the neighborhood rush to purchase products

1960s

1960s – Woolworth cafeteria

1960s – Java shop in Grain Exchange building downtown

1960s – Drug store soda fountains at McDermid Drug, Campion’s Drug

1960 – Eastgate Forest Lawn Chinese food

1960 – Prairie Dog Inn Mexican restaurant- Mike Ciccaglione owner

1960 – Jade Palace downtown

1960 – Capri Steak House and Pizza Restaurant on 16^th avenue NE

1960’s – Phil’s steak house

1960s – A & W has outlets on Centre,Street, 4 street SW, Macleod Trail S and in Kensington

1960s – The Owl’s Nest in the Westin Hotel

1960 – Phil’s Pancake House 24 hour breakfast on Glenmore Trail and Elbow Drive

1962- Peter’s Drive In opens

1962 – Rimrock restaurant in Palliser Hotel offers fine dining

1963 – Dairy Queen opens in Haysboro

1963 – Tom’s House of Pizza on Macleod Trail

1964 – Tom’s House of Pizza in Kensington

1964- Angel’s Drive In

1966 – Silver Dragon Chinese Food

1966 – Beachcomber Restaurant on 7 avenue SW

1967 – Bar X (Smugglers’ ) Steak house

1967 – Big Mac

1968 – McDonald’s on 23 avenue NW

1968 – Calgary Tower opens its Sky 360 restaurant at top of tower

1969 – Spiro’s Pizza and Greek Taverna

Calgary was an innovative place for food in those years. The Caesar cocktail was invented in 1969 by Walter Chell, chef at the Westin.  Ginger beef was crdated by George Wong at the Silver Inn.  Alberta beef was  becoming famous and at the high end restaurants we rarely could afford, was often on the menu.

Costs in restaurants parallelel food and labor costs of the time. Today the costs sound shockingly low but in perspective they did match what salaries were.

My father, child of the Depression, recalled when he could get an entire meal at a coffee shop for a quarter.

In 1965 a menu sample showed costs of

Hamburger and milkshake            55 cents

Spaghetti and meatballs                $1.25

T bone steak dinner                         $3.50- $5.50

Fancy steak dinner for two           $10

As teens though there was much that we did not yet have. Tim Horton’s only set up Timbits in 1976 and we were by then 27!.