Was there any racial connotations to the (Vancouver) restaurant name "White Spot"?

Question

They are famous for their burgers.

Their symbol looks like a chicken.

I'm guessing they served more chicken awhile ago.

Was this name meant to imply the place that white people could go for a simple meal? The White Spot?

I can't think of any other meanings for this name.

Answer 1

White spot is meant to suggest clean.  Looking at the name and logo, I think of it like a white tablecloth.

Answer 2

I am a former chef and could the same not be said for the U.S called White Castle. Could the same be said for A&W, it is just a name like Burger King, it was never owned by a king.

And here in Canada we have a donut shop called Tim Hortons, he was a famous hockey player here in the 50-60's, in essence he only lent his name to the chain with partner Ron Joyce back in the 1970's, now it has over 400 outlets in Canada and the W New York area, in the UK they have a chain named Wimpeys, and they sell hamburgers???

Answer 3

White spot was or maybe still is a chain restaurant. We had several in Denver CO back in the 1960's. At least one was located near downtown in a clearly mixed race neighborhood. The logo was a large white circle!!?!?! You know, a big white dot -  a white spot.

According to wikipedia it was names after another well known restaurnat back in the 1930's.

Answer 4

There may have been at one point. If you look at the old pictures most have of the people who worked at the original one, the people are all Caucasian... I don't know about the demographics of BC back then, but it seems a bit suspicious that the staff were all Caucasian and the restaurant is called White Spot.

Though I have heard the publicity b.s. that it's named after white table cloths (obviously that's not the truth).

Answer 5

from the white spot website:

" Behind Nat on the log cabin were two words in green: White Spot. His first idea for a name had been Granville Barbecue, but instead he took the advice of his friend, the late sportsman George Irwin. “Why not call in White Spot like that fellow on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles?” he’d suggested. “he’s doing all right with the name.” So White Spot Barbecue it was, and Nat prayed that success would flow north."

and their 'secret' sauce is mayo and red relish...

Answer 6

Ok, y'all, I think this is the definitive answser, and don't give me the best answer on this, because all I did was click on the link that JuanB gave, but here it is, the answer to your question:



How did White Spot get its name?

Back in the twenties, a young British Columbia entrepreneur named Nat Bailey had a vision to build a restaurant that served the highest quality, unique tasting food. He knew that in order to keep his guests happy, he would have to serve his great food in clean and comfortable surroundings. So, he committed to having the cleanest spot in town. He was so committed, in fact, he named his restaurant “White Spot” where “White” represented spotlessly clean. Today, we continue Nat Bailey’s philosophy of providing our guests with high quality food, cleanliness and friendly service.

Answer 7

i live in vancouver and work at that restaurant and the reason for calling it white spot is because they put a peice of white meat in the middle of each plate and i thnk its garlic dip

hope i helped

Answer 8

he wondered what to call his new restaurant  and his buddy said that white spot in LA does pretty good with its name,so he named after the successful white spot restaurant on wilshire boulevard.

Answer 9

refers to a bright , enjoyable surrounding for a relaxing light meal; nothing extravagant, but satisfying.