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Burned out Langley City restaurant building home to many businesses over the decades

Over the years, many families have eated at the 1960's-era building lost to fire Saturday, Oct. 5

The Viva Mexico building fire Oct. 5 resulted in the loss of a building that dates back more than 55 years.

The two-storey building was home to not only the restaurant but also businesses in the second floor, including Olive Physiotherapy, 
Sandra D Photography, Forever In Time Photography, Phoenix Rising Metaphysical Emporium, Harmony Animal Training and Behaviour.

According to BC Assessment, the building at 20559 Fraser Hwy. dates to 1968.

Local MLA Bob McLelland had his constituency office upstairs during the 1970s.

In the early 1970s, the Old Country Inn restaurant started up and operated for many years on the ground floor. (The site has three municipal address numbers, including 20559 and 20563.)

For a few years in the 1980s, there was a restaurant called Chalet Suisse which was owned by the people who later set up Choo Choo's. As of 1986, it was called Swiss Tradition Restaurant and Patisserie, owned by friends Ed Dubuc (who left after a few years, set up an auto dealership and died at the age of 55 in 2005) and Jim Evans.

Choo Choo's, with its distinctive railway-themed decor was in operation as of 1992. It closed in the spring of 2016 after more than 24 years in that location. 

Viva Mexico moved into the space about nine years ago from a smaller location down the street.

Over the years, the second storey has been home to many businesses, typically the kind that don't require street-level storefronts, including the Select Driving School, an accountant, realtors, an insurance agent, KenRight PrePress Production Services which did graphic arts work for the Langley Advance back in the 1990s, a computer training centre, a private investigator school, the Downtown Langley Merchants Association, and a home security company.

The Langley Christmas Bureau found a home for Christmas 1999 in a unit behind the restaurant.



Heather Colpitts

About the Author: Heather Colpitts

Since starting in the news industry in 1992, my passion for sharing stories has taken me around Western Canada.
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