When 1955 Alberni Athletics basketball star Jon-Lee Kootnekoff announced he would be coming back to Port Alberni to put on a motivational speaking seminar on April 13, it brought back memories for Joanna Wright.
Wright worked at several different theatres in Port Alberni and Alberni in the 1950s, and she remembers going to a cafe called Kooty’s Deluxe Foods in the late 1950s. Owned by George Kootnekoff Sr. and his wife Mary, it was a popular spot for teens and adults alike.
Kooty’s café, as the place was known, was located on the block that is now called Victoria Quay, and faced the Somass River. There was another coffee shop across the street called Three Sisters Café. Kooty’s had a living space beside it, and the Kootnekoffs lived on the premises. Mary would often go into the living room beside the restaurant for a break after cooking for a few hours.
Kooty’s was a family affair, recalls Maxine Kootnekoff, who was married to George Jr. He passed away quite a few years ago.
“Mom (Mary) Kootnekoff did a lot of the cooking, she was a really good cook,” Maxine recalled. Both Mary’s and George’s parents were Doukhobors who immigrated from Russia; Mary was known for her Russian dishes like borscht and perogies.
“Mom’s borscht was so awesome…that people would come up from Nanaimo,” Jon-Lee said. “Dad would sit and tell stories to teenagers.”
“George Sr. was a social butterfly,” Maxine said. “He loved to go out and talk to everybody in the restaurant. He would pour free coffee…it made it very friendly to go there.”
The name for the café was inspired by Jon-Lee, who lived in Port Alberni in 1954-55 after graduating from high school in the Lower Mainland. A basketball player, he joined the Alberni Athletics squad that won the Canadian basketball championship in 1955.
“Teenagers didn’t know how to pronounce my last name so they would chant ‘we want Kooty’ when I was sitting on the bench,” Jon-Lee recalled. Ironically, his father never saw him play basketball in high school—just in university when he was playing with the UBC Thunderbirds a few years later.
Kooty’s Deluxe Foods opened in the mid-1950s. Toward 1960 they hired a Chinese cook and started selling Chinese food. By 1962 the café was closed, ending an era.
susie.quinn@albernivalleynews.com
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter