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Fish and chips landmark downtown closing after 90 years

Old Vic Fish and Chips on Broad Street has been around since the Great Depression, but won’t survive a massive redevelopment due to start sometime in the next year.
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Cindy Qin, who has owned Old Vic Fish and Chips on Broad Street for the past two years, says she will serve the last plates of fish and chips on Jan. 28. DARREN STONE, TIMES COLONIST

A downtown dining landmark that has endured for 90 years with multiple owners is closing at the end of the month.

Old Vic Fish and Chips on Broad Street has been around since the Great Depression, but won’t survive a massive redevelopment due to start sometime in the next year.

The property in the historic Duck’s Building is part of a future site for a hotel by Chard Developments.

Cindy Qin, who has owned the restaurant for the past two years, said she will serve the last plates of fish and chips and bowls of chowder on Jan. 28.

“It’s too bad, but we have to go,” she said on Thursday. “We appreciate our customers enjoying our food, and your kind smiles to our staff will be remembered.”

Qin believes there have been six or seven owners of Old Vic Fish and Chips over the years.

She wants to carry on the tradition in a new location, preferably downtown, but said her searches have yet to reveal an ideal spot. “They are either too big or too expensive,” said Qin.

City council approved the rezoning and heritage alterations to the historic Duck Building in September 2021 after lengthy public hearings and nearly six years of planning.

The redevelopment proposal divided the city’s heritage community, with preservationists and developers at odds over the future of the Duck’s Building and the adjacent Duck’s Carriage Factory, also known as the Canada Hotel, at Broad and Johnson streets.

The properties are among those bequeathed to the University of Victoria by the late Michael Williams, the developer and businessman behind Swans Brew Pub and Restaurant.

UVic Properties and Chard Development plan to build a 135-room hotel covering nearly a full block of Broad Street, preserving the front and rear walls and parts of the side walls of the 127-year-old Duck’s building, as well as an original rock wall of the Carriage Factory, which dates to 1874.

Fans of Old Vic Fish and Chips wrote on social media that they were sad to see the place close.

“We ate there twice on our honeymoon. Sad to hear that you are closing … we planned on getting back there eventually,” said Sarah Young.

Bob Canham said his mother, Ruby, had worked there for 16 years when it was called Old British Fish and Chips “back in the 50s and 60s,” when Dick Porter owned the place and “Masie and Betsy and Jhoi in the back … very fond memories,” he said.

Others said they got their first jobs there.

Julie Coles said she just watched a Hallmark movie, The Wedding Veil Legacy, and the 30-seat restaurant was re-branded as The Griddle House for the movie set. “I’m so sorry to hear you’re closing, but glad to know the restaurant made it into a movie.”

dkloster@timescolonist.com