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Lido a mystery papered with yellowed Couriers
By Cheryl Rossi-Staff writer
A neighbourhood enigma sits a few blocks east of Main on Broadway. It's The Lido at 518 East Broadway, and it's a shop that's never open.
Its faded displays and old-style furnishings, from a fake wood panelled radio table to a decades-old refrigerator and deli counter, make the store appear suspended in time.
Shopworn tins of beans, peas, sardines, Campbell's mushroom soup and No Name vegetable soup line the shelves, the bleached out labels all facing the same direction. Boxes of Rogers sugar cubes artfully deck the back shelves and yellowed copies of the Courier blanket rusty wire window boxes at the front. It almost looks like a still life. But two calendars near the front window almost always reflect the appropriate month.
On a sunny spring afternoon, Dave Anderson peered into the shop's window while waiting for the bus.
"As long as I've been coming here I've never seen this place open," he said. He's been visiting his brother who lives nearby for 19 years.
He's not alone in wondering about The Lido.
The mystery continues to be discussed on the online Discover Vancouver bulletin board with one contributor joking The Lido is a museum.
A neighbouring business owner, who wouldn't give his name, said "Old Gus" and his wife stocked the shop with outdated, but not off, products from Canada Packers. He said Old Gus died a few years ago.
Until at least December, a note on the front door of The Lido stated it was open Saturday mornings, but the note is now gone.
Christine Carbon, who lives in the neighbourhood, said she hasn't seen the store open on a Saturday morning in three years.
Ugen Lai has been the service manager at the neighbouring Edmonds Starters and Alternators for nine years. He said he hasn't seen The Lido open on Saturdays for at least five years.
"That's a [too] good location to keep it closed," he said.
Kaz Ushijima, who works across the street from The Lido at Tonari Gumi, a non-profit organization that provides services for Japanese-Canadians, said staff and clients often wonder about the space.
"We were talking about it a week ago," he said, adding they would be interested in renting it.
The shop and its accompanying apartment are registered to Margaret Rothweiler, along with a property at 510 East Broadway. When the Courier phoned Christian Rothweiler at 518 East Broadway for an interview, the man who answered said, "We're not interested, thank you," and hung up.
After the Courier left a note requesting an interview, an unidentified caller to the paper said the owner is retired and unwell.
The city's business licences office reports The Lido's owners paid for a business licence for 2006.
published on 05/03/2006
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