Meeting of September 18, 2012

Rotarians helped raise 40-something thousand dollars on Wednesday morning's Raise-A-Reader campaign. From our club: September Smith, Jim Force (organizer extraordinaire), Tom Croft, Tricia Timmermans, and somewhere else at the time, but responsible for selling dozens of papers, Ron Cooley. A good time was had by all! Thanks to the Times Colonist, Serious Coffee and the Strathcona Hotel for making it a fun morning. And a bonus: Tom, Tricia and Ron all won hockey tickets. 

     Meeting reporter: Corey Burger.

Visiting Rotarians included Rotaracter, Samantha Lloyd (hosted by Leslie); there were four guests, the speaker Kate Phoenix, Sheena Hanbury, Blair Hagkull (hosted by Peter Sou), and Marco Fernandez (hosted by Claire). Don O’Coffey thanked Corey, Peter Lawrie and John Jordan for coming out and BBQ-ing for ALS. ALS raised almost $1,000 from the food donations.

    Jim Force mentioned the Raise-a-Reader newspaper sales tomorrow morning with 8 Rotarians currently signed up. Rotaracter Samantha (on left) said that her team of 8 Rotaracters would beat the Rotarians any day.

   John Jordan mentioned his plant sale from 10-2 at his house in support of his Rwanda project this coming Saturday. 

   Wynn Taylor was also looking for volunteers for some popcorn popping for Monterey Recreation Centre on the 28^th from 5:30-8:30pm.

     

Our fines master, Ron Cooley, was very skillful in extracting money from the club members this week: he fined the retired people for the audacity of doing their chores during the week when the poor working stiffs had to wait until the weekend. Jessica Van der Veen was fined for checking her phone too much, and anybody who had done a Reply All on an email had to pay up. Line-jumpers were also penalized. Lorna looked far too relaxed and Jim Laing spent his time spreading rumours instead of greeting. Both were made poorer by these infractions. Ron Beyer was the sole anniversary this week, celebrating his Rotary anniversary. In the happy department, far-too-relaxed Lorna was happy to be travelling but sad to be leaving. Heather was happy that she found her key so that she and fellow Rotarian, Barry Mutter, were not late for the meeting. Lori was happy it was her daughter’s 18^th but sad that her daughter was in Montreal, so she didn’t get to celebrate it with her. David Philip was happy that he didn’t have to break a $5 dollar bill, adding one to his hefty $4 fine. Mary was happy that she had a cousin visiting from England and Leslie was happy to have found a recipe for crockpot yogurt given the amount of yogurt her family consumed. Jim Force also found US Civil War diaries from a relative, something he had known about for over 40 years, but had not seen until now. He also drew the winning ticket.

The new Beach House (formerly McMorran's) Restaurant

SPEAKER: Kate Phoenix, The Beach House Restaurant.
Jim Force introduce the speaker, Beach House (formerly McMorrans Restaurant) owner, Kate Pheonix, former Roger’s Chocolates Director of Marketing and current owner of Sam’s Deli and the The Soda Shoppe on Government Street. Kate opened by saying that you should never open a restaurant with $50 in your pocket, then asked the crowd if any had been to McMorran’s or the Beach House. At least some of the club members had been to both. The Beach House, which has now been open for six weeks, is such a strong community icon that “everybody has something to say,” Kate explained. Kate has a background in fixing houses, opening restaurants and factories, and more, so she thought this would be just another property to fix. She said the reaction of the community to McMorran’s, which opened in 1919, was strong. She has decorated the walls of the restaurant with pictures from the Saanich Archives to foster the connection. At the time McMorran's first opened, Cordova Bay was a resort community that people would take the train too, which Kate found amusing when we are talking about LRT in 2012. The McMorran family owned all of what is now Sunnymead, Broadmead, and Cordova Bay; they logged it, then sold it off for residential development. By the 1960s, they opened the mall near the restaurant. There are now four McMorran brothers left, all in their 80’s, who have been through the restaurant and seem to disagree about which piece of furniture was used for what when McMorran’s was also a shop. Kate also found it funny that she runs the only soda fountain in Western Canada given that McMorran’s also had a soda fountain at one time.

Part of the new Beach House interior

McMorran’s was famous for its maple-sprung dance floor, installed after the Second World War; Dallas Chapple’s father, renowned Big Band and Swing orchestra leader, Dal Richards, was once heard there. Many elderly ladies blush furiously when they remember their stories about meeting their now husbands at McMorran’s, getting married on the beach, and having their anniversary at the restaurant. Kate was sad to report she had no parking attendant, something she says she hears about several times a day; people remember Mr. McMorran in his vest helping them park. In 2009, McMorran’s closed and the family chased away many developers wanting the prime waterfront real estate. Saanich bought a portion for McMorran Park. The building itself was falling down, a fact emphasized when the roof was removed - the main beams were found to be cracked. Those beams now enjoy a new life as furniture. The restaurant was also not only on a residential-zoned lot, it also went over into two neighbour’s properties and the public sidewalk. Kate showed a full list of the number of engineers involved in rebuilding. Even she was unaware there was such a thing as a Balcony Engineer, nor that this personage would cost $5,000. Other construction oddities included the fence that had been made into a wall. Reconstruction took a full year, running from July 3, 2011 to July 3, 2012. Kate said that she will remember these dates for a long time, as they are her and her father’s birthdays. The new restaurant has been attracting a lot of events such as weddings. Without any advertising, they have 90 weddings booked for next year. Kate is building in special menus for Sunday brunch; she hopes to have the downstairs bistro open next month; it will be built to feel like a cruise-ship lounge. The last part of the restaurant, the café for takeout, should also be open soon.

Jim Laing led off the questions by asking about the negative reviews of the Beach House on places like Urban Spoon. Kate replied that she didn’t worry about it too much, but that she wished people would raise the issue at the time, rather than going home and writing up a bad review. Peter Sou asked about seating capacity ... about 200, with about 250 dinners and 200 lunches served each day. A question was asked if she would do it again. The answer was an emphatic "YES". She said that she didn’t have much debt, so her carrying capacity wasn’t that bad and that she expects to pay it off in three years. Her chef, formerly of The Penny Farthing and The Irish Times, is an Island Chefs Collaborative member.

There are two kitchens, one above that was a viewing kitchen and a smaller kitchen below. She spends $7,000 a month on cleaning the restaurant every night. Total staff numbers approximately 75, many of whom are locals and students.

The restaurant is right on the beach.

David Sills asked about the back deck and the giant metal fish.Kate replied that this was a local metal artist, Fantasy Metal Crafting, and that the artist was installing some fish on the roof today, with fish tails to look like they are swimming out to sea. Blair asked about future projects. Kate would love to see something done with the derelict building in North Jubilee near the intersection of Fort and Richmond. - perhaps a Bed and Breakfast above a café. Marco asked about how she solved the parking problem, and Kate replied that it wasn’t solved and she is hoping that it will solve itself. She also said that she hopes to purchase adjacent land and expand the parking lot. Corey Burger, who worked with Kate during Roger’s acquisition of Sam’s Deli, thanked Kate for coming and speaking about her experiences opening the restaurant and said that he was glad it was kept in local hands.

The Queen played us off.