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In the fickle world of the restaurant business, lasting more than a decade can be a major accomplishment.
And if you’re still around after more than six decades — there must be a secret to your success.
Here are three New Brunswick spots that are still popular after all these years, all places where everyone really does know your name.
Chris Rock Tavern
The Chris Rock in downtown Moncton is celebrating its 60th year of business, making it two years older than the actor and comedian Chris Rock, if you’re wondering. Locals tend to pronounce it the CHRIS-rock.
Opened in 1963, the tavern is named for its founders: Chris Shaban, who managed the Fighting Fisherman himself — boxing champ Yvon Durelle — and Charles (Rocky) Stone, who is described by the New Brunswick Sports Hall of Fame as the “‘founding father” of football in Moncton.
The dimly lit tavern is bustling even on a Thursday afternoon, as patrons drink in front of the beer taps at the bar or eat at the round wooden tables in front of the pool table. Large black and white photos of Moncton’s past hang on the walls across from a few VLTs. Staff and customers call out to each other by their first names.
A small number of eateries have been around for more than 60 years. Learn about several that have distinct stories to tell.
Owner James Boushel says one of the secrets to lasting 60 years is creating a great relationship between staff and patrons. Another is being fiercely loyal to locals — both people and brands.
“We have been partners with Moosehead since day one, Feb. 12, 1963,” Boushel said, thinking of the Saint John brewery owned by the Oland family. “It’s been told to me that Mr. Oland himself put the original draft lines in.”
With a quick scan of the tavern over his shoulder, he said he could easily name everyone at every table.
“You don’t get that [in] many places,” said Boushel.
“We’re not a corporate environment, we’re a family-owned business — my family is here every day,” he said. “Everybody knows everybody, and that’s the difference. We care.”
Boushel relishes the concept of a tavern lost in time, and said there’s never been a push to modernize or chase trends.
“We’re not always looking for the next thing, we’re happy to be what we are.”
Carman’s Diner
On the other side of the province is Carman’s, styled as a quintessential ’50s diner, it also turned 60 this year.
From the checkerboard floors to the red-vinyl barstools and booths, the diner with mini jukeboxes at each table has been an institution in St. Stephen for as long as co-owner Suzie Hossack has been alive.
Her grandfather opened the diner after leaving the woods, where he was a lumber-camp cook. Hossack can remember playing with her Barbies in the basement while her mother, who had taken over the place, waited tables upstairs.
“It has not changed,” said Hossack, who now owns the diner with her brother and sister.
“People will come in here that haven’t been in here for 30 or 40 years and be like, ‘Wow, it’s the same as it ever was.'”
Having worked at the King Street diner since she was a teenager, Hossack can tell what day of the week it is based on who’s in the booths — people she knows by first name and last, and often their entire extended families.
But she also feels a sense of responsibility. Hossack said many of her regulars are seniors who depend on Carman’s for their meals every day. When people eat at her restaurant twice a day, she said, they’re depending on the diner for food.
“We cook real food,” she said. “We cook food in our oven every night, turkey, beef and pork. We do it the old-fashioned way. We haven’t changed since the beginning.”
The newest item on the walls among the old Coca-Cola signs and tin placards is a recognition certificate from the province acknowledging the diner’s 60 years of service.
“That was nice,” said Hossack. “We acknowledged it on social media, but it kind of came and went. Then people kind of picked up that this is a big deal.”
Joe’s Diner
Joe’s Diner on Devon Avenue, on the north side of Fredericton, is small place with a loyal following.
The building seats just 16 people at a time. Those seats are all at the counter, where you can watch your meal cook on the grills just a couple of metres away.
Yoon Jeong Lee and her husband, Seong Won Han, bought the diner six months after they moved from South Korea 13 years ago.
“We immigrant from South Korea 2010, January. We started [working] this restaurant in June,” said Lee.
They’ve kept the home-style menu that Joe’s is known for, supplementing it with traditional Korean dishes, such as bulgogi and kimchi. Lee said her sister helps when things get busy, but for the most part the diner is run by just the two of them.
Old menus date the business back to 1941, back when it was called Joe’s Lunch. Records from the provincial archives show that Joe’s Lunch may have been relocated from somewhere else at some point.
Lee is unsure exactly how long the diner has been running, but thinks it’s about “70 or 80 years old.”
In the 1950s, when it was standing where it is today, 83-year-old Burton Green remembers eating there when his cousin brought him and his brother to town for a day.
“It was Joe’s Lunch then,” said Green. “And hotdogs then were 10 cents apiece.”
Green said he’s watched restaurants come and go over the decades, but Joe’s remains, which he attributes to the friendliness of the series of owners who have run it.
“It’s quite a miracle, really, that it’s been on the go all this time,” said Green.
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