Toronto’s Old Chinatown: Restaurants / Lichee Garden

The Beginning

Lichee Garden first opened in 1948 by its first owner Harry Lem. Located at 118 Elizabeth St., where the restaurant spent the following 35 years, Lichee Garden was among the first big Chinatown restaurants in Toronto. Prior to these big establishments, Chinese restaurants in the area could only accommodate a small number of people of around 20, where Lichee Garden could accommodate roughly 300 guests at a time. The restaurant would remain open from 11am to 5am daily, and was the second restaurant in Toronto to have a liquor license.

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The Establishment

What started off as a place for Chinese clientele became a popular attraction for non-Chinese people as well, with roughly 80% of its customers being non-Chinese. Lichee Garden staffed roughly 100 people at a time, including waiters, cooks, and cleaners. On a busy day, it was not uncommon for 3000 guests to dine there, with long waits for a table at dinner time.

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The Environment

Harry Lem’s goal was to serve Eastern foods in the largest and finest environment in Chinatown. The same band played for 20 years, providing guests with live music. It provided guests with a very unique dining experience. Many customers became interested in China and its culture after dining at Lichee Garden and turned to Harry Lem for information, which led him to venture into becoming a travel agent.

“Never wait untill you are thirsty to build a well.”

Born “Lem Fong” in Hong Kong, Harry Lem came to Canada in 1918 as a boy of 12 years. He came to Canada to meet his father in Toronto, and went to school for only a year and a half before beginning his first job at a Chinese laundry. At 18 he became a waiter at a Chinese restaurant, where the beginning of his work with restaurants essentially begun. At this point, he made $12 a week, working roughly 18 hours a day.

When his father returned from a brief leave due to illness, the duo took over a small cafe in Milton which became a success, encouraging them to take over various other cafes and small restaurants in Ontario before Harry Lem finally moved to Toronto’s Chinatown.

His first job in Chinatown was at The International Chop Suey House, where he worked for 10 years in collaboration with 10 other men. Unfortunately, he could not take over the restaurant as he had wanted to do, which led to his purchasing of a lot on 118 Elizabeth St., the only vacant lot at the time. He began building Lichee Garden with a couple friends, taking 4 years to complete it. His goal was to create the largest and finest restaurant in Chinatown.

Quickly becoming popular, he bought the lot behind it to expand the kitchen of the restaurant, as well as the store below. As he was importing such an enormous amount of food from China, he decided to enter the importing business, and in 1957, he was the largest importer of Chinese food in Canada. His list of jobs continued to grow; so many of his customers were interested in China, so he decided to also become a travel agent. Due to his involvement with so many different areas, he received a ton of mail, thus deciding to open his own post office, he made his community’s postmaster.

An advertisement for Lichee Garden from The Toronto Daily Star on August 30th, 1948. It states, “Thousands who have visited Lichee Garden have acclaimed it for its fine Chinese dishes prepared under the direction of master chefs. You’ll thoroughly enjoy relaxing, Oriental atmosphere, so don’t fail to visit Lichee Garden before you leave.” In this particular advertisement, the food is the main focus being used to draw in customers. In particular, the ad appears to be more for tourists, as it states “before you leave.” An authentic  atmosphere is trying to be portrayed, as even the woman in the corner appears to be dressed in traditional Chinese clothing.

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Another advertisement for Lichee Garden from The Toronto Daily Star on June 10th, 1949. This one ran roughly a year after the previous one, and already radical differences can be spotted. It states, “when dining out in Toronto, discriminating people naturally visit Lichee Garden.” Instead of the restaurant being the focus, more attention is payed to the customers, or type of customers the restaurant was trying to attract. The people in the ad instead appear white, in popular Western dress as opposed to a traditional Chinese look. This could represent the shift in customers that Lichee Garden experienced, as being one of the first big Chinese restaurants to have a majority of Canadian customers.