For 75 years, the Commodore Restaurant has been serving up food in Edmonton, the oldest continuous restaurant in the city.
For the past two decades, the restaurant was owned and run by David Gee.
“We’re an original, old-fashioned diner,” Gee said. “A proper greasy spoon, not a reproduction.”
Gee’s grandfather owned property on Jasper Avenue and 97 Street, which he traded for a different building with the city in 1942.
That building was a Greek restaurant called Commodore Restaurant which was foreclosed upon during the war.
“I grew up here all my life; we lived upstairs,” Gee said.
For the past two decades, the Commodore Restaurant has been owned and run by David Gee.
His family moved in 1968 when his parents bought a house. The following year, the building had a fire and the restaurant was rebuilt in 1971.
“Jasper Avenue and the whole area was a lot different back then,” Gee said.
Down 107 Street, where a parking lot now stands, were old houses. Each house and business had an iron incinerator to burn garbage.
On 8 Street, there were stables for horses for Silverwood’s Dairy at 109 Street.
“I hated it because it smelled terrible, as a kid,” he said.
Growing up, he didn’t think he would take over the restaurant.
He went to university first to take education. But in the 1980s, there was a surplus of teachers. He went back to school at NAIT to study air conditioning and refrigeration.
He worked at the restaurant part-time, and realized it was his best opportunity and took it over from his parents in 1997.
There are long hours and it takes dedication, he said.
“It’s difficult sometimes, but the rewarding thing is you are your own boss,” he said.
About 80 per cent of the customer base is regulars, Gee said, including former mayor Stephen Mandel, former NDP leader Ray Martin, and senator Tommy Banks.
Other high-profile guests who have popped by the diner include Bill Maher, Pierre Burton and David Suzuki.
An engraved “Gee 42” in the sidewalk outside the restaurant was actually made by Gee in his youth. When the sidewalk was redone for the LRT, workers took out that piece of concrete and put it back into the new, wet concrete.
By Catherine Griwkowsky