Each year Vancouver sees dozens of restaurants come and go.
While some are noteworthy and many are fairly typical, there are occasionally more unusual spots. Sometimes called a themed restaurant, other times described as a gimmick, there are lots of places in Vancouver's history that have stood out for reasons that didn't include the food or drink.
That's no judgment on the food, it's just that the ambience, experience, or decor sometimes is a bigger draw than anything else.
So here are five restaurants that went that route.
1. Clancy's Sky Diner
These days airplane food has a less than remarkable reputation. Whether it be microwaved mush or bland food, the experience of eating midair is somewhat muted by what's usually offered on longer flights.
But in the 1940s and 50s the glamour of air travel led to the creation of a cafe in downtown.
Clancy's Sky Diner was set up so people could (sort of) feel like they were dining on a plane.
Archival photos show the narrow cafe on Granville Street was remodelled to look like the inside of a plane, including a rounded ceiling with panels that looked like they could store bags. The windows also looked like they could have been from a plane.
2. The Hobbit House
While The Lord of the Rings films brought Middle Earth into the middle of pop culture in the early 2000s, J. R. R. Tolkien's books were popular before that.
Proof of that includes the Hobbit House restaurant that spent several years across the road from the Capilano Suspension Bridge, in what is now the Bridge House.
The log cabin was festooned with all sorts of fantasy decorations including maps of Middle Earth, images from the book series and more, in a family restaurant setting. Many of the items on the menu made Lord of the Rings references, too.
"Casual and homey, with excellent and attentive service, the Hobbit House does justice to its mythical namesake," reads a 1979 review in The Province.
There was also a 'Hobbit House' run by the First Baptist Church in Vancouver's West End for a spell, which was more of a community centre for the church.
3. Brother Jon's Restaurant
Similar in vibe, but based on actual history, Brother Jon's (and then later Brother's) took people from 1970s and 80s Gastown to a Franciscan monastery some time in the past.
Waiters dressed in robes, there was Gregorian chanting and meals included European-ish meals that one could imagine monks eating 400 years ago, like cornish game hens, fondue, and "the Abbot's Dinner" with broth, salad, and a cheese board.
It was located at 1 Water St.
4. The Medieval Inn
Weirdly Brother Jon's had competition in Gastown. The Medieval Inn was also based on Europe several hundred years ago.
However, instead of a monastery, this was more akin to an inn and tavern.
In one old newspaper ad it advertises its "Olde English Menu," "buxom wenches," and a "strolling minstrel."
Among the selling points appears to have been a lack of forks, as well.
It was located at around 52 Powell St.
5. The Elbow Room
The most recent to close on this list, the Elbow Room at Davie and Seymour streets lasted from the 1980s (at a different location) to 2018.
Its specialty was the sassy service, which is where it got its slogan.
"Food and service is our name, but ABUSE is our game."
The restaurant was the creation of husbands Bryan Searle and Patrice Savoie, who started it in 1983.
It was popular enough that a play was written, set there, and a mini-documentary was made.
~With files from Lindsay William-Ross.
