1570 Water St

The building is significant due to its former close association with the Chinese-Canadian community in Kelowna, and for its continuous role as a restaurant operation in Downtown Kelowna.

The uses of the buildings illustrate well the social situation in which most members of Kelowna's Chinese community lived. It was built between 1910 and 1914, appearing on the 1914 Fire Insurance Map as a restaurant with boarding rooms upstairs. In 1925 the restaurant operated as the L.D. Cafe, owned by Charlie Hong. Four years later the front part of the building was considerably expanded, with the owners at that time identified as C. Hong and Long Foo.

The business was one of many serving Kelowna's large Chinese community. In 1930 there were about 500 Chinese. There was little mixing between the Chinese and the rest of the community.

Most of Kelowna's, and British Columbia's, Chinese were male 'married bachelors,' unable to afford the large head tax required to bring in their wives and families and as a consequence of Canadian laws that became increasing restrictive to Chinese immigration. The Chinese labour bosses contracted the labour of these men to local farmers and other employers, and also operated rooming houses like this one where they quartered the men over the winters, building up debts which ensured their control over the workers. The men took their meals at local restaurants such as this.

As the Chinese population gradually dwindled as a result of immigration restrictions, a low birth rate, and presumed migration to Vancouver and other centers, the population and the size of Kelowna's Chinatown shrank. The restaurant was taken over by non-Chinese operators, its name in 1945 changing to Lorrie's Cafe. In 1949 Wendelyn and Tillie Silbernagel acquired the business and renamed it Tillie's Grill. It became the Baron Cafe in 1971, then in 1977 Talos Greek Restaurant, the changes reflecting new immigration patterns, in this case from Germany and then Greece.

Following a recent renovation, the building is now used as a portion of The Keg Restaurant, along with the adjacent Courier Building. This and previous alterations have changed the appearance of the building considerably, particularly on the ground floor, which has been tarted up with a gabled entrance roof and new windows, but the overall original form is still evident. The building has been a restaurant continuously since its start, with shifts in ownership and style clearly reflecting the changes to Kelowna and its population.