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For 60 some years the large neon
Elite Cafe sign had been an icon along Penticton's Main Street. In 2019 the sign finally came down, to be replaced with
the present
Wild Ginger Asian Cuisine sign, proclaiming the name of the present establishment, though the restaurant wouldn't open until the early summer of 2021 (COVID delayed, we expect).
Interesting side note:
Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton once visited The Elite Café.
Until the restaurant was taken over by new owners, to become
Wild Ginger Asian Cuisine, it had remained a classic diner, serving classic menu items in a classic setting. One patron noted that it was "
a restaurant that hasn't had a makeover in 80 years."
That, though, is, regretfully from a historic perspective, a thing of the past, the restaurant having being completely renovated and redecorated to reflect its new style and its new menu. The Wild Ginger offers popular Thai, Chinese and Vietnamese dishes. Their extensive menu includes Soups, Appetizers, noodles & rice, and specialty dishes.
Elite Cafe
Description of Historic Place:
The Elite Cafe historic place is made up of a one storey commercial building, its 1950s free-standing neon sign, and its interior seating, located in Penticton, British Columbia.
Heritage Value:
The Elite Cafe has historic and social value as a symbol of the origins and continuity of cafe culture on Main Street from the 1930s to the present day. The Peterson family opened the Pandora Cafe in the corner of Wade Avenue and Main Street in 1927. In 1936 they built the historic place on the current location and renamed it the Elite Cafe. It was strategically located across from the new Capital Theatre and next to Woolworths.
The Elite Cafe is the only building on Main Street to have retained its 1950s neon sign, a symbol of a past era of commercial signage. The cafe was given special dispensation to keep its large sign when other signage was removed in the 1970s, a testament to its status as a landmark on Main Street.
The interior of the cafe retains its 1950s decor of streamlined metal and vinyl booths and tables, an important survival of art modern interior decoration. The cafe was for many years at the centre of civic social life and was visited by film stars Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.
It also has social value for its continuous use as an eating establishment with its original interior booths intact.
Character-Defining Elements:
Key elements that define the heritage character of the CN Railway Bridge include its:
- Key elements that define the heritage character of the Elite Cafe include its:
- Free-standing neon sign
- Interior booths
From Historic Places Canada