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Vintage Toronto Ads: Sorry, Wong Number
Source: The Toronto Star, March 30, 1979.
Never underestimate the ability of a business to exploit the punny potential of its moniker.
Deriving its name from a New Jersey restaurant that offered the same mix of cuisines, Ginsberg and Wong made it easy for groups of diners torn between Chinese treats and a deli sandwich fix. Weeks before its opening in April 1979, an advertorial in the Toronto Star promised that the new restaurant, whose full name was the Ginsberg and Wong Food and Beverage Emporium, would prove popular with lunch and pre-theatre groups who fancied a different style of menu. Among the promised items were “all types of hearty fare such as plump, overstuffed cabbage rolls and tempting dishes from the wok as well as all kinds of deli delights.”
Toronto Star reviewer Winston Collins had mixed feelings about the fare and lively atmosphere:
The food isn’t altogether terrible at this new Village by the Grange restaurant, which seems to have sprung to life out of a computer. But, be warned, the big, brash, noisy establishment assaults the senses and nervous system. Along with the kishke and fried won-ton appetizers, an offering of Valium should be included…It’s the perfect place to take a bunch of rowdy youngsters out to eat…The food? Some of it is better than you might expect. Of the appetizers, the gross egg roll ($1.75) is an appetite depressant but the fried chicken wings ($1.95) are meaty and flavourful. The Chinese hot-and-spicy chicken ($3.95) is a pretty good entree; the deli corned-beef sandwich, with shoestring French fries and a taste of cucumber salad ($4.50), is just OK.
The crowds came: by the middle of May, the Star reported that one Saturday saw over a thousand patrons follow the arrows along the self-serve counters to choose their meal. Diners continued to flow through its doors for two decades before the contents of Ginsberg and Wong were unceremoniously auctioned off along with the remnants of three other defunct mall eateries in 1998. We don’t know how many people left that sale with the wong item.
Additional material from the March 20, 1979; May 6, 1979; and May 18, 1979 editions of the Toronto Star.