29. CHU'S RESTAURANT: A CHANCE ENCOUNTER

I think the summers between my birth in 1952 and 1960 were more leisurely ones for my mother. She could spend more time at our home on Park Street to look after my brother and me.

Once the school year was over and summer break rolled around, Mother’s main focus had to be us. She could not easily run between my father’s restaurant and home because there was no one to look after us in the interim.

We couldn’t stay overnight at the Drummond Road restaurant my father operated at the time as there was no room. So from a child’s perspective, summers were simpler.

For a few of these at home summers, Mother organized a holiday event: walk from our home up to Queen Victoria Park to look at the falls. The three, or so, kilometer walk there was indeed an adventurous outing with our mother, a rarity in that it was not errand-related.

At the bottom of Park Street, we crossed River Road and followed the continuous walkway right up to the Horseshoe Falls.

My brother and I often ran ahead. Our mother had no need to call out about keeping alert for traffic since there were no intersections to be concerned about.

We seldom encountered any other walkers, let alone tourists. There were no designated sights of interest along the river between the lower rapids and the falls.

The stretch of river walk up to where the Park began (under the Rainbow Bridge) belonged to us.

The river, rushing at the bottom of the steep embankment, promised us the Niagara River wonders we had heard spoken about but never seen: a suicide victim; a boat with a conked out motor being swept towards the rapids; or, a daredevil bobbing along in a barrel. We only needed to keep one eye open to the river and the other to Mother so she didn’t see us getting a foothold on the stone guard wall to boost ourselves up for a better view.

Anything was possible. We were children and had our own imaginations.

After we got to the Horseshoe Falls and felt the cooling mist on our face, the weariness of our legs would overtake us. The trek back could have been a tedious slog had Mother not been clever in selecting our return route.

She led us back up Clifton Hill towards Victoria Avenue.

We did not go into any of the numerous souvenir stores, but in those days, their goods were allowed to spill out onto the sidewalk. The allure of one coveted item after another drew us from one storefront to another: feathered headdresses, tomahawks, drums, totem poles, RCMP hats with cords and whistles, colourful beaded belts, pink rock candy, ten cent mystery surprise boxes, giant pencils, ice cream, popcorn, . . . .

Flashing neon arrows bid us to enter but Mother moved us along – up Clifton Hill away from temptations – across the train tracks, and to the north side of Victoria Avenue.

Curiosities prevailed on Victoria Avenue, too. We, my mother included, marveled at the larger-than-life plaster-cast animals: pigs, frogs, toads, cats, and dogs. Velvet paintings of the illuminated falls: so lovely. T-shirts emblazed with Niagara Falls Canada in every kind of lettering.

I do not think I wondered about what people did with such things: they belonged to the world of not Chinese.

Many eateries occupied Clifton Hill and Victoria Avenue. Neither my brother nor I had any expectation that we would enter one. Sometimes, there was a food item posted on a sidewalk sign or in a restaurant window. Although my mother did not read English, she had no trouble discerning prices. She’d ask about what was it that cost the advertised amount, listen to our response, cluck her tongue, and then announce her surprise: “So much.”

Out of the blue on one of these outings, Mother did take us to a restaurant. After crossing Victoria Avenue and instead of turning right, she continued right up Centre Street to number 1026 – Chu’s Restaurant.

My mother would have known the area from the days when she and my father operated the New World Café at 1717 Victoria Ave (Post #14). It was strange she never pointed out the location or spoke about it.

Mother must have heard about Chu’s Restaurant and perhaps curiosity, or an invitation in passing, brought her there.

The brief visit left me with a lasting impression: my brother and I were fortunate. We were free to play outside of our home on Park Street whereas the children who lived upstairs of the restaurant were kept indoors, out of the way of the bustle of the tourist hub.

From Chu’s Restaurant, we would have made our way home: along Victoria Avenue, veering to the right down Palmer Avenue, and eventually walking alongside the train tracks back to Park Street.

This one-off encounter is all the experience I have of Chu’s Restaurant yet the business continued to operate for the years I lived in Niagara Falls.

Chu's Restaurant
(Centre St. from Ellen Ave. Clifton Hill in background), June 1985
Photo courtesy of Niagara Falls (Ontario) Public Library

Here’s what I’ve learned about Chu's Restaurant since.

The city directories indicate that Chu’s Restaurant, 1026 Centre Street, started up in about 1957. JACK CHU was reported as the owner.

City directory listings for 1958 and later associate EDMOND (ED) CHU with Chu’s Restaurant.

According to his obituary, Ed Chu was born in Taishan (Toysan), Guangdong (Kwangtung) Province. He immigrated to Canada in the early 1950s. He was a teenager at the time.

Ed Chu was the “owner of Chu’s Restaurant & Tavern for almost 25 years and then, Chu’s Dining Lounge in Niagara Falls, NY, for the next 15 years until he retired in 2008.”

After retiring, Ed Chu returned to his birthplace in China for extended periods of time.

In 2012, he returned to Canada (Toronto) after a stroke and lived out his days there.

Ed Chu passed away in March 2016 at the age of 77. He is “survived by his long time partner Angie Chu of Niagara Falls, daughters Gina Chu (Anthony Feher) of Toronto, Louanna Chu of Thornhill and Edna Chu (Scott Simmons) of Toronto, and his grandchildren, Emma and Alex Feher, Ella and Chole Ritco, Haley Chu and Declan and Abbey Simmons.”

It’s been more than half a century since my mother took us to Chu’s Restaurant – at best, a happenstance visit at that. It's not surprising I don't remember much.

I do not know if I have even met Ed Chu on that occasion or even later on. I think the person who showed us around during our one visit was a Chinese woman.

Based upon the obituary notice, Ed Chu would have been born in 1938 or 1939. He was at least 13 years my senior. Having said that, I doubt that the children I had seen upstairs at Chu’s Restaurant were his daughters. Perhaps the children belonged to his relatives “in and around the Niagara Region” as mentioned in the obit.

According to his final wishes, Ed Chu was cremated and his ashes returned China.

Although a part of the Chinese diaspora for many years, Ed Chu chose to return to his homeland in the end.

Circumstance connected Ed Chu to Niagara Falls for a while.