Jardin Tiki

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Jardin Tiki
Jardin Tiki Montreal.jpg
Jardin Tiki's marquee
Jardin Tiki
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Location within Montreal
Restaurant information
Established1986
ClosedMarch 28, 2015
Owner(s)Danny Chan
Food type Canadian Chinese cuisine
Dress codeCasual
Street address5300 Sherbrooke Street East
State Quebec
Postal/ZIP CodeH1V 1A1
Country Canada
Coordinates 45°34′05″N73°33′10″W / 45.568148°N 73.552645°W / 45.568148; -73.552645
Website jardintiki.com (archive)

Jardin Tiki was a tiki-themed buffet restaurant established in 1986 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and closed 28 March 2015.

Contents

History

Jardin Tiki was opened by Douglas Chan, a Chinese immigrant who arrived in Montreal in the 1950s and worked as a waiter at Kon-Tiki, [1] a renowned tiki-themed restaurant located from 1958 to 1981 at 1455 Peel Street, at the former Mount Royal Hotel in downtown Montreal. [2] Chan, who left Kon-Tiki in the 1970s, [3] opened his first restaurant Tiki Doré in 1974 at 6976 Sherbrooke Street East in Montreal. Chan bought back many elements of the Kon-Tiki restaurant's decor at an auction sale held after the Kon-Tiki restaurant's closure in 1981, in order to use them in another more spacious restaurant that he wanted to open. [2] He founded a new business on 14 February 1985 and the following year [1] opened his second restaurant Jardin Tiki (literally Tiki Garden) with the help of then co-owners Albert Wong and Paul Yee, in a former car dealership. [3] Chan sold the Tiki Doré restaurant in 1990. [1] The Tiki Doré restaurant closed in January 2000. [4]

Jardin Tiki was located at 5300 Sherbrooke Street East in Montreal, facing the Olympic Village in the Hochelaga-Maisonneuve district. It was noted for its kitsch Polynesian decor, its large atrium filled with tropical plants and its pond with live turtles. [5] It got rave reviews in James Teitelbaum's book on the pop-Polynesian phenomenon Tiki Road Trip. [2] [3] The all-you-can-eat buffet served Canadian Chinese cuisine.

Danny Chan, son of Douglas Chan, who died in 2002, took over his father's business. [6] According to its last owner, the only day Jardin Tiki had been closed was the day of his father's funeral. [7]

Closure

The Jardin Tiki closed on 28 March 2015. The land and building (including the decor) were purchased by retirement-home mogul Eddy Savoie of Résidences Soleil to make way for a new retirement residence to be built on the site.

Significance

Scenes from the 1998 film C't'à ton tour, Laura Cadieux, the 2006 René Lévesque television miniseries [8] and the 2008 movie Truffles (Truffe) by Kim Nguyen, [6] were shot at Jardin Tiki.

At the time of its closing in 2015, the Jardin Tiki was the last tiki-themed restaurant remaining in Montreal and one of a handful of tiki establishments in Quebec. A notable survivor is the Hôtel Motel Coconut in Trois-Rivières. [3]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Our History". Jardin Tiki. Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Retrieved 15 March 2015.
  2. 1 2 3 Dubuc, André (2014-08-19). "Jardin Tiki, haut lieu du kitsch, en péril". La Presse (Canadian newspaper). Gesca Limitée. Archived from the original on 2015-12-08. Retrieved 2015-03-15.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Roxanne Arsenault, Les commerces kitsch exotiques au Québec : reconnaissance et sauvegarde d'un nouveau patrimoine, septembre 2011.
  4. ↑ "Tiki Doré". Critiki. Archived from the original on 2020-11-08. Retrieved 2020-08-28.
  5. ↑ USA Today , "10 great places to carry a torch for Tiki bars", 3 August 2007
  6. 1 2 Hamelin, Marilyse (2015-03-12). "Le " Tiki ", c'est fini". La Presse (Canadian newspaper). Gesca Limitée. Retrieved 2015-03-15.
  7. ↑ Harrison, Ian (2015-01-27). "Marvel at Montreal's Palace of Kitschy Tiki Relics Before it Faces Auction". Montreal Eater. Retrieved 2015-03-15.
  8. ↑ Langlois, Claude (17 November 2004), "René Lévesque, le beau risque d'Emmanuel Bilodeau", Journal de Montréal, archived from the original on March 15, 2015
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