MEET AND EAT AT LEE’S GARDEN

When I was a kid, my second home was our restaurant, Lee’s Garden. My father opened it in 1952  and operated it for about 20 years until he retired in the early 1970s. I started working there on Sundays when I was in elementary school and it became my summer job during high school.   The restaurant is the inspiration for many of my stories. It’s where I heard my father and the Greek and Jewish customers tell stories about immigrating to Canada. These stories were little gems as my parents didn’t talk much about their past, so I sat there quietly, listening as they talked and laughed about the people they knew, the jobs they had and the discrimination they faced. I only gleaned little details here and there and could never connect the whole story until recently, when a friend’s chance remark made me realize that the restaurant was more than just a way for my parents to make a living.

Follow me on Facebook as I film a documentary about Lee’s Garden, the key to my family’s past.