On this day in 1953, one of Edmonton's best-known restaurants was showing off a new look.
The Silk Hat on Jasper Avenue had just reopened after a major renovation and expansion, which doubled its size to 121 seats and made it the largest lunch counter in Alberta. It was just one of many renovations the Silk Hat experienced over its lifetime as one of Edmonton's longest-operating restaurants.
The Silk Hat traces its roots back to 1912, when the diner opened on 102 Street and Jasper Avenue. The opening was part of a rush of eateries that sprang up to serve the city's rapidly growing population. There is a dispute over what name the establishment opened under. Some sources say it was originally known as the Golden Spike, though newspaper accounts imply this name temporarily replaced the Silk Hat, only to be reversed later.
Whatever the restaurant's original name, it quickly became one of the most popular places downtown. By the 1930s, in addition to coffee and burgers, the Silk Hat also offered patrons regular sessions with fortune tellers. Surprisingly, the Silk Hat wasn't the only Edmonton restaurant to offer fortune tellers, but it was the Silk Hat that kept the tradition going the longest, with supposed soothsayer Madame Charlotte holding weekly readings there for more than 40 years.
By the 1940s, it appears there were actually two Silk Hat locations on Jasper Avenue — the one on 102 Street and another on 106 Street (listed in employment ads as Silk Hat Coffee Shop No. 1 and No. 2). Both were purchased by Edward Weiss. The 106 Street location was closed and consolidated with the original about a decade later.
Over the next decades, the Silk Hat changed hands and decor but retained a nostalgic, almost timeless charm. It was the kind of place that still had ancient but working jukeboxes and old movie posters from the neighbouring Paramount Theatre. It was also where liver and onions remained on the menu long after it disappeared from other restaurants.
The Silk Hat was just shy of 95 years old when it closed in 2007, largely due to plans to build an office tower at the site. Those plans failed, however, and in 2008 the restaurant was resurrected as a gastropub called The Hat. It operated for just under a decade (during which time its new owner discovered a mysterious, unrecorded tunnel below the building) before closing in 2017.
The space the Silk Hat occupied for so many years has remained empty since 2017. Edmonton's culinary community continues to be strong. This week saw the screening of a new docuseries, Eating Edmonton, which features interviews with restaurant owners and patrons to tell stories about their community.
This clipping was found on Vintage Edmonton, a daily look at Edmonton's history from armchair archivist @revRecluse of @VintageEdmonton.