Founded | June 16, 1928 |
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Headquarters | Vancouver, BC, Canada |
Website | White Spot |
White Spot is a Canadian restaurant chain based in Vancouver, British Columbia, best known for its hamburgers, Pirate Pak children's meal, and other home-style food, as well as its "carhop" drive-in service and "Triple O" burger sauce. In recent years, the chain has attempted to move into more upscale but still family-friendly decor and food, including menus developed with local celebrity chefs, while also expanding with fast-food oriented, retro-decorated White Spot Triple-O's outlets.
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The restaurant was founded on June 16, 1928, by Nat Bailey. His first idea for a name for the eatery had been Granville Barbecue, but Nat instead took the advice of a friend who suggested he call it White Spot after a restaurant on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles, California—in part because the name sounded spotless and clean.
The original White Spot location, and long-time flagship restaurant, was located in the Marpole neighbourhood, at 67th and Granville Street at what would be known to many as Granville House, in Vancouver. Originally, the restaurant was called White Spot Barbecue Sandwiches, and then evolved into a full-fledged drive-in and dining room. By the 1990s, however, White Spot Drive-ins were slowly phased out due to an increase in franchise restaurants and a gradual decrease in popularity of drive-in's. Granville House was a popular dining spot in the area, until 1988 when a fire in the kitchen badly damaged the building. The restaurant closed permanently at that location shortly thereafter, despite some talk of rebuilding. White Spot would not have Marpole location again for several years.
The carhop drive-in service began further west, at a viewpoint off Marine Drive in Point Grey when Bailey served food from a vehicle. Drivers parked nearby asked if he and his staff could deliver the food to their cars instead, and soon Bailed had hired servers who "hopped to it" to do so. Similar drive-in carhop service, with servers bringing trays and food to diners' cars to eat on-site, using long trays that fit across the seats between vehicles' windows, became standard at White Spot outlets in the coming decades. As of January 2010, despite the decline of drive-through service at other food chains in recent decades, eleven White Spot locations still offer drive-in service, such as those in North Burnaby, in North and West Vancouver, and on Marine Drive and on West Broadway in Vancouver.[1] From 1999 onward, White Spot franchises have also been installed on numerous ships in the BC Ferries fleet.
In 1982, White Spot returned to local ownership, when the company was purchased by BC businessman Peter Toigo and became a part of Shato Holdings Limited. Toigo’s acquisition began the most aggressive expansion period in White Spot’s history, and in 1993, White Spot introduced franchising. By the 2000s, the chain began moving into more upscale food and decor, while maintaining most of its traditional menu items such as burgers, breakfasts, and sandwiches, and also opened burger-focused takeout locations with its Triple-O's locations.
In 1981, a White Spot restaurant was the location where police met and recorded notorious serial killer Clifford Robert Olson.[2] In 1986, the chain was sued in the court case Gee v. White Spot which helped set Canadian case law. The plaintiffs, Mr. Gee and Mr. and Mrs. Pan, claimed damages for botulism poisoning related to a beef dip. The decision made it easier for diners to sue restaurants for breach of contract and implied warranty instead of the harder-to-prove negligence.
White Spot is famous for its "Pirate Paks", a children's meal introduced in 1968. The meal is set in a cardboard model of a pirate ship with small details like a chocolate coin wrapped in gold foil, a cardboard sail on a drinking straw mast, and a cup of ice cream in the captain's quarters.
At present, the restaurant has evolved for a West Coast look and upscale dining, although their trademark hamburgers are unchanged and still a staple of the menu. White Spot executive Chef Chuck Currie is featured in marketing campaigns alongside guest celebrity chefs hailing from Vancouver, including John Bishop, Rob Feenie, Umberto Menghi, and most recently Melissa Craig.[3]
White Spot serves more full service meals than any restaurant chain in British Columbia; more than 15 million guests dine at the restaurant every year. Mystery shoppers often visit White Spot restaurants to rate the quality of service and food received.
There is also a fast food subset called "Triple-O's by White Spot", named after the trademark "Triple-O" hamburger sauce (made of mayonnaise and hamburger relish), which are frequently located at Chevron gas stations.
According to a plaque on the wall at the Surrey (Guildford) restaurant, "Legend has it that the name Triple-O was part of the shorthand language of the carhops: guests could choose from mayonnaise and relish, and the order slips were printed with three X's and three O's. An X meant hold, an O meant extra, and Triple "O" meant plenty of everything."
In the 1990s, White Spot experimented with opening outlets across the nearby U.S. border in Bellingham, Washington, without much success. Abroad, White Spot has in the past few years expanded its Triple-O's fast food chain into Hong Kong and, most recently, Bangkok. In Hong Kong, four such stores can be found at the basement of Pacific Place, and in Exchange Square, on the Hong Kong Island; and at Cooked Deli in the Harbour City shopping mall in Kowloon and in Shatin. The three Hong Kong franchises each record more than twice as many sales as the average location in BC.[4]
A location in Seoul, South Korea, opened in September, 2008.[5] It is located near Dosan Park, in the fashionable Apgujeong neighborhood. Seven more locations are planned for Seoul.