The Best Little Movie House in Vancouver

Photo Credit: Gastown Grand Prix, Best Vancouver Magazine

NOSTALGIC VANCOUVER: I did a lot of business. The opportunities were everywhere and through my clients at the salon, I heard about even more. I was open to any kind of business and the first one I got involved with was a restaurant. John Levine had six PIZZARAMA restaurants. We bought one at Fraser and forty-ninth and another in North Vancouver on Marine Drive. This was before Canada Place and the Seabus Terminal (it was a long drive to the North Shore in those days). John opened Brother Jon’s in burgeoning Gastown where restaurants such as the Keg & Cleaver, the Cannery, and the Crêperie had just begun to make their mark. Brother Jon’s was a 250-seat themed restaurant modeled on a Franciscan monastery, featuring fondues and B.C.’s largest selection of wines. The waiters were dressed in monk’s robes and John was seen everywhere as the “Head Monk”. He kept one pizza place on Broadway called Jon’s which was very popular. My partners were Roberto Abraham and my lawyer Nick Pyrgos. We turned the two PIZZARAMAS into Matteo’s restaurants. Then we opened a third Matteo’s in West Vancouver on Marine (between Sixteenth and Seventeenth) that same year. [Roberto’s father-in-law had millions in the Royal Bank upstairs. I told him he should buy the property on the corner of Burrard and Dunsmuir (for $60,000) but he didn’t listen]. -excerpt from My Greek Barber’s Diary

Dining in Gastown, be sure to come on down and support your local restaurateurs.