The White Spot restaurant at Douglas Street and Caledonia Avenue — a fixture for about half a century — is permanently closing, the Vancouver-based company said Friday.
A statement from the company said the location has been one of the hardest hit by the “direct and indirect impacts” of the pandemic.
“We are saddened to advise that our Caledonia White Spot in Victoria will not reopen,” it said.
Last year, the Caledonia Avenue restaurant closed for several months as a result of provincial health orders affecting dine-in service, the company said. It reopened in March but then closed again.
Indoor dining is banned in B.C. until at least Tuesday as part of the province’s “circuit breaker” restrictions to reduce new COVID-19 infections.
The location is next door to the Capital City Centre Hotel, which was recently purchased by the province for almost $25 million to provide 94 temporary supportive housing units. The province had been leasing the space for about a year, although many people were displaced by a fire last November.
Restaurants are among businesses most affected by the pandemic, with many trying to survive by offering outdoor service and takeout, and others closing their doors permanently.
“We have enjoyed serving our downtown Victoria guests, and, in happier times, the many tourists who frequented the location. We look forward to serving our valued guests elsewhere within our family of restaurants,” the company said.
White Spot said it is working with staff to support them through the transition. Details were not provided.
Four other White Spot restaurants remain in the capital region. They are at 1871 Fort St., on Quadra Street in the Saanich Centre, at 941 Langford Parkway, and at 3401 Mount Newton Cross Rd. in Central Saanich.
Over the past several decades, White Spot’s Caledonia location has been a popular spot for people attending events at the nearby arena. In the early 1970s, patrons could go to the Caledonia Avenue or the Douglas Street venue at the Town and Country shopping centre, now home to Uptown, for an all-you-can-eat Wednesday “family fish fry.”
The Caledonia Avenue White Spot is owned by company president Warren Erhart, said business consultant Frank Bourree. “It needs a bit of upgrading and that probably came into consideration in terms of investing that kind of money.”
Given the robust development scene in Greater Victoria, where projects often have restaurant and retail spaces on their ground floors, White Spot could end up moving into one of those locations, said Bourree, who has worked with the company in the past.
“I think White Spot could do very well in a new building.”
White Spot is a healthy company, with a strong group of franchisees and stable leadership, Bourree said.
On its webpage, the company says that despite the pandemic, it has opened six new locations in B.C., Alberta and Ontario over the past year. It aims to open 30 new restaurants in Ontario within the next five years.
White Spot was founded in 1928, making it Canada’s oldest restaurant chain, the company said. Nat Bailey opened Canada’s first drive-in restaurant at Granville Street and 67th Street in Vancouver.
Prior to the pandemic, White Spot served more than 17 million guests annually at 128 White Spot and Triple O’s (its quick-service restaurants) throughout B.C., Alberta, Asia and Ontario, the website says.
