Donovan Wong
Donovan Wong at Gerry’s Fast Food, March 2020.
AUDIO INTERVIEW
SUMMARY
July 7, 2015
00:37 RESTAURANTS: Donovan Wong’s family business is Gerry’s Fast Foods. They’ve been there since May 1977. Donovan still has the original vendor’s permit! The address 724 St. Clair West between Rushton and McDonald’s.
01:20 SHOPS: When they first opened next door to them where McDonald’s is now was a ShopRite – competitors at the time of Consumers Distributing.
01:45 ShopRite – you had to fill out the form ahead and hand it to them and they would bring the merchandise from the back. As a teenager Donovan did all his Christmas shopping there.
02:06 IMMIGRATION: His father was influenced by his uncle to come to Canada from Jamaica. He could have gone to the States or Canada. His uncle extolled the virtues of Canada – its healthcare. He provided orientation into Canada for the family. He owned Ralph’s Bakery – at the time it was partly a restaurant as well. They produced a lot of baked Jamaican products. His father used to own a supermarket in Jamaica. He was getting desperate to do something here. His uncle suggested Donovan’s father do something like he did. At the time the hot-bed for Jamaican stores was on Eglinton but his father wanted to be in a fresh area. He didn’t want to be seen to be in competition with the person who brought him here.
03:52 RESTAURANTS / BUSINESS OWNER: Donovan was 17 at the time and he remembers his father coming along St. Clair and looking at the area and doing his own version of “market research” at the time. He would see how many Jamaican people there were in the neighbourhood. They wanted to see what the mix was. That was how they did their research. Based on that he decided to open on St. Clair in what had been a clothing store. His father bought the building.
04:47 DEMOGRAPHICS: Business started slowly. At the time the area was heavily Italian neighbourhood but still a good mixture of people. It slowly took off. There was a little competition. A lot of them didn’t take off.
05:40 NEIGHBOURHOOD STREET LIFE / RESTAURANTS: St. Clair right-of-way it was very difficult during the construction. It was difficult for customers to come in. There were big holes, with a plank over it that customers had to cross. At one point he had to have customers come to the back of the store. Just a couple of days of that.
06:30 SHOPS: A lot of the businesses are no longer there. Ontario Chrysler used to be right across the street where Bracondale is now.
07:00 SHOPS / BUSINESSES / ST. CLAIR NEIGHBOURHOOD LIFE: There were a few small car dealerships and gas station - Tulio - the local garage and service station, at the corner of Rushton and St. Clair where condos are now.
07:45 It’s familiar and a family tradition having this business.
08:20 SHOPS: Rushton and St. Clair on NE corner (where The Rushton is now) there used to be a fruit market. The woman who ran it was named Maria. She was the matriarch. Donovan’s mother was very close to her.
09:28 Further along on St Clair there used to be Bargain Harolds. There was a BiWay where the Goodwill was (now a gym).
09:45 Kresge’s where Hakim is now. It had the soda fountain. It had very creaky floors.
10:24 RESTAURANTS / BUSINESS OWNER: that when they were children, used to have their birthday cakes made by him, now come and have him make birthday cakes for their own children. They make Jamaican rum (fruit)cakes and their version of a pound cake – any kind of cake, chocolate, carrot cake, banana cake, but predominantly the plain pound cakes and rum fruit cakes.
11:08 MEMORABLE EVENTS: at Salsa on St. Clair Donovan remembers so many old customers coming by, so happy to see them still there. It brings back many memories for people. Heart-warming to see these people.
11:36 They see new people, they want him to stay open later, he already spends so much time at the store, not good for family life.
12:20 He feels St. Clair has become very “yuppyfied” – it has changed along St. Clair.
12:55 RESTAURANTS/BUSINESS OWNER: Their restaurant is more like a “Ma and Pop” kind of thing, more intimate, his daughters help him, his sister comes on the weekend. His brother is the handyman.
13:45 NEIGHBOURHOOD: Everybody knows everybody.
14:50 RESTAURANTS/ BUSINESS OWNER / WORK: When they originally started his brother and he were older than his other two siblings. They lived in Mississauga, and the bulk of the work was done between his brother and himself, his parents and the workers that they had. His sister and him didn’t come until she was bigger. His brother was a little older (seems there are two brothers) and it was his job to look after his sister. He and brother would be doing everything, looking after customers. When they first started the store they mixed the dough for the patties by hand (no machine yet), it was laborious. It was difficult. They got a machine to help, and then a mixer – it made life a lot easier.
16:25 RESTAURANTS /SHOPS / MEMORABLE PEOPLE: Donovan and his sister, and daughters pretend that they are doing something and the other one has to guess which customer it is – all in good fun.
16:55 MEMORABLE PEOPLE: One gentleman comes every day and he has to have his soup. He says Gerry’s is a home away from home for him, a lot of people say that.
17:35 IMMIGRATION: This reminds him of a study that was done a long time ago where it was found that most immigrant communities tend to congregate in areas where they had common food – food was a bonding mechanism for them.
19:05 NEIGHBOURHOOD STREET LIFE: Becoming more urban, more upscale. Not having an effect on business.
19:27 The restaurant is not a big draw for students, get a lot of parents, they enjoy Gerry’s.
20:10 IMMIGRATION / WEATHER: It was hard with the cold weather at first. His mother didn’t take to it at first, one winter they were going home and all the routes they were going were blocked with snow and they were on Eglinton (at Keele) and they got stuck in the snow and this Italian gentleman came out and gave them solace – he invited them into his home and gave them tea and coffee. It’s a wonderful memory he has of them in their early years. It was in the 70s.
21:23 WORK / WEATHER: Donovan and brother shovelled all the snow, he remembers a lot more snow then. Pictures with snow drifts up to waist
21:54 COMMUNITY GROUPS AND SERVICES: Most of them are getting pretty old, and have retired. There used to be a policeman who was an “ethnic” outreach worker. He came by the store the other day. He is retired but came in for some soup.
22:25 NEIGHBOURHOOD STREET LIFE: One night his dad got a call from his tenant upstairs and he told him that someone was selling bread there for 50 cents (usually sold for $1.50). His dad had forgotten to close the door (and left the keys) and the guy came in and started selling groceries. At the time they sold a few Jamaican goods. His dad went in and when he got there the guy just said “hello Mr Wong” and gave him the keys.
23:18 NEIGHBOURHOOD STREET LIFE: They have had a couple of break-ins. Nothing significant. Someone came in through vent for furnace. They have put bars in there.
23:53 RESTAURANTS / BUSINESS OWNER: Jerry’s Menu: Soup – Monday and Tuesday beef soup, Wednesday and Thursday they usually do chicken and Friday and Saturday it’s usually a red kidney bean or pigeon peas or occasionally goat or fish soup. It has French Canadian base – good hearty soup. It’s very popular in winter as well as chicken soup.
24:38 Regular Customers: One gentleman who comes in really likes his soup, and he gets it for his wife to show her what real chicken soup.
24:45 The same gentleman who has soup everyday is 85 years old, but still spritely and he went on the bus one day and the bus driver wanted to see his ID because he didn’t think he was a senior. The bus driver asked him how he looked so young and his response was “Gerry’s chicken soup.”
25:30 NEIGHBOURHOOD STREET LIFE: Donovan remembered an old Chinese proverb “if you stay in one place long enough the whole world passes in front of you.”
25:40 RESTAURANTS / DEMOGRAPHICS: His family background is Jamaican/Chinese.
25:50 MEMORABLE PEOPLE: Avery Wells, she was Miss. Wells – older lady who lived in Bracondale House for years. She was a fixture on St. Clair. She was a nurse in the war and became a teacher after that. She used to teach all over Canada. In the summer, she would go to Sioux Lookout. She had a lot of “native” art. She was always giving stuff away. Every summer, she would bring him a stack of booklets that listed what was going on in the city. She used a cane and would use it to knock a car if it wasn’t driving safely. She would point the cane. She was very feisty. She would go in the bicycle shop near Wychwood and Leah’s. When she was sick he would nurse her with chicken soup – he would make it specially for her, not as spicy. Finally she got to the point where her nephew had to take her. She moved to Elliot Lake. She started losing her memory. A couple of years ago the people from the nursing home (Bracondale) across the street told him that she had passed away. She was there from his youth. She was funny.
29:50 She would go to the bar owners at 2am in the morning in her pjs and tell them to turn the music down.
30:36 Donovan and Miss. Wells shared birthdays – Dec. 27. Every birthday Christmas she would get him funny cards. He still has a stack of them at home.
31:40 There’s another woman who has lived in the neighbourhood for a while. She would also give books to him to read like “The Vinyl Cafe”.
32:35 NEIGHBOURHOOD STREET LIFE: Community: St. Clair feels like a town within a town. There’s a familiarity to it.
33:30 MEMORABLE PEOPLE: There’s another lady in Bracondale house, Helen. Donovan also brings her soup. She misses Avery. Avery was like a rebel. Avery is greatly missed.
34:20 Kevin Weeks who used to be the goaltender in NHL. He grew-up in the neighbourhood. Whenever his team played the Leafs he would come in for patties. Very nice guy. He still has lots of friends in the neighbourhood. They would come in before playing. One year he was in the finals for the Stanley Cup, but they lost. Donovan saw him after that. He said that if they had won the cup he would have brought the cup to Gerry’s.
35:20 Cito Gaston was a regular customer. The night that the Blue Jays won the World Series Cito Gaston came in for 2 chicken rotis. Donovan jokingly tells people that’s the reason they won the World Series.
35:47 Trevor Burdick (he fought Mike Tyson) was the heavyweight champion for a short time. He was a customer. Donovan’s father was a big boxing fan.
36:05 Dwight Drummond from the CBC is a regular customer. Whenever he can he puts Donovan in whatever he is working on. Donovan has become a face of St. Clair.