Here are a couple of trivia questions for your consideration: What is one of the fastest growing sectors in the local economy, and what business investment in Squamish has one of the highest risks of failure?
If your response to the first query was restaurants, you were right. No surprise there. Opening an eatery in a commuter town where residents are pressed for time to prepare their own meals sounds like a winning proposition.
If your answer to the second question was restaurants, you were correct again.
Eateries come and go in the Shining Valley as frequently as the seasons change. Across the road from Shannon Falls, in one of the most scenic locations and busiest corridors in the province, the Klahanie Roadhouse Restaurant is a distant memory. Yiannis Taverna, a once popular Greek food emporium on Cleveland Avenue, closed four years ago. Some establishments, like the Shady Tree Neighbourhood Pub, have successfully exploited a niche. Others, like the Grizzly Bar and Grill, have gone into perpetual hibernation. Downtown, the Campfire Grill, which replaced the defunct Parkside Restaurant, is out of commission and the Ledge Café is closed. Just down the street, both the Sunshine Bakery Café and the Zephyr Café continue to flourish. On the Sea to Sky Highway, at the same location where the KFC/Taco Bell outlet went belly up, Mags 99 Fried Chicken and Mexican Cantina is thriving. Over on Discovery Way the windows of the Two Birds Eatery are papered over and a lease termination notice has been posted on the doors.
So how do patrons rate the burgeoning collection of Squamish food service offerings? Without revealing the identities of the specific establishments, what follows is a random selection of reviews posted on Urban Spoon and Trip Advisor:
“Food is good but the service is awful… The staff treat you like you are interrupting their social gathering.”
“Fast, affordable, tasty, clean and friendly.”
“This was hands down the worst restaurant experience of my life! Will never visit again.”
“Another Squamish gem which deserves all the praise it has been getting.”
“The worst service ever. The waitresses prance around in tiny shorts ignoring their customers.”
“Amazing! We lived in Surrey for five years, and this place is great!”
“Disgustingly filthy, rude lazy ‘server’ and crappy ‘food.’”
“Super energy! Super food! Fun time!”
“The worst 50 bucks I ever spent. Bloody awful.”
“Love this place. Looks hideous from outside but the decor inside is really good!”
“I was so disgusted. We couldn’t finish our meal and left. I will never eat in that dive again.”
And the moral of this story is? If you decide to get into the restaurant business in Squamish you better do your homework, or suffer the consequences.
