An inspirational story

[capricorn]

Most know it as the Lucky Key Restaurant, but it’s really a monument to Polish and Chinese immigrants and a symbol of how their full-bore work ethic established well-rooted Canadian families.

The restaurant has closed and the building will soon disappear. The land will become part of a parking lot serving Macies Best Western Hotel at Carling and Merivale.

When Michael Macias bought the property in the 1930s, the address was R.R. 1, Westboro. It was in the boonies, there being nothing much between it and the end of the streetcar line at Holland Avenue. He earned the money for the purchase by working in dangerous sewer tunnels in downtown Ottawa. New immigrants often took dangerous jobs.

There were two abandoned storage sheds on the property, and Mike took them apart and used the materials to build a restaurant that opened in 1939 with his name anglicized. On the left side of the front door it said “Macies Barbeque (sic).” On the other side, the sign said “Macies New Way Hamburgers.”

It was a dream come true. Mike Macies and his Ukrainian wife, Mary Muciy, had a business of their own and were beholden to no one. They opened at 7 a.m. and closed at midnight, seven days a week. Somehow they found time to develop more of the three-acre site and built an L-shaped roadside motel. Carling was a main highway into the city from the west. In the early ’50s they got out of the food business and leased out the restaurant.

In 1957, it became the first Chinese restaurant to open outside the city core. (In those days, Albert Street near Bank was Chinatown.) Partners Bennie Kung, Tom Yee and Peter Toy called it the Lucky Key and turned it into a big and successful business. They, too, committed themselves to long hours seven days a week.

But restaurants are like farms. The kids don’t want to take over the business.

The story unfolds....

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/Iconic+Lucky+part+history/4392753/story.html

Legacies such as this can be recounted hundreds of thousands of times throughout Canada. I have much admiration and thanks for those souls that rose from nothing and solidified the foundation on which this wondrous country was built.

[Shwa]

The story unfolds....

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/Iconic+Lucky+part+history/4392753/story.html

Legacies such as this can be recounted hundreds of thousands of times throughout Canada. I have much admiration and thanks for those souls that rose from nothing and solidified the foundation on which this wondrous country was built.

Very cool!

But when I moved there in the 70's I knew it as the 'Lucky Okey' for a long time.

[Pliny]

The story unfolds....

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/Iconic+Lucky+part+history/4392753/story.html

Legacies such as this can be recounted hundreds of thousands of times throughout Canada. I have much admiration and thanks for those souls that rose from nothing and solidified the foundation on which this wondrous country was built.

A good story of what individual initiative and a good work ethic achieves.