For decades, if you wanted a meal at the Garden Gate Restaurant in the Beach, you might have had to elbow past someone lingering in the doorway, peering through the window.
They weren’t looking for a table at the Chinese-Canadian diner. They were looking for Hazel.
This week, the beloved server turned 100, and dozens of longtime customers packed the diner — affectionately known as The Goof — to celebrate the woman who spent nearly seven decades serving their meals and remembering their lives.
Hazel Hoeg worked at the Garden Gate from the day it opened in 1952 until she retired in 2020. Over those 68 years, she watched babies grow into teenagers, teenagers into parents — and eventually grandparents, many of whom still return to the diner today.
Not only did she witness generations grow up inside The Goof, she became family to many of them.
Ask Hazel what she loved about working at the diner for all those years, and it always comes back to one thing: these customers. Even if she “didn’t even know how to make a banana split” when she started, Hazel credits her gift of the gab for why she excelled at The Goof. “I’ve always liked people…My son would say that I talked too much,” she laughs. “That was easy for me.”
Eventually her boss told her to just stand at her station anytime someone was loitering by the door, trying to triangulate a seat in Hazel’s section. “‘And then they’ll know where you are,’” Hazel smiles. She may have retired six years ago, but her customers still know where to find her at least once a year. A few customers-turned-friends now throw Hazel a birthday party every year at The Goof, which Hazel calls her “home away from home.” This year, the celebration was extra-rowdy as Hazel marked her 100th birthday. The dozens assembled clapped, whooped and held up phones to capture the moment as Hazel arrived in her signature teal. It felt like a celebrity had just entered the room — and, in a way, that’s true. Hazel has been a mainstay in the lives of many locals for as long as they can remember, and for some, even before they were born.
She earned a lot of goodwill over her 68 years in service at The Goof. What made her a really great waitress, Lise Desrochers says, “is because she made everybody feel special.” After years of being taken care of by Hazel, Desrochers wanted to return the favour and organize these post-retirement birthday parties; Hazel was mortified at the idea, according to Desrochers, but she agreed to do it anyway, if it would make them happy. That’s just Hazel.
Hazel always remembered everything about their lives as they were growing up, according to Gail Harvey. “She was so proud when we graduated high school, and when we did well at school or the first time we would come to lunches alone,” she says. “She would look after us. She was just always so loving and like a second grandmother.” Harvey tears up when she talks about Hazel: “I often say that this was our second kitchen. And my kids were raised by everybody here.”
Desrochers has been coming here for 40 years. The owners, Keith Chau and his wife Wendy (who met at the restaurant when Wendy applied to work there), are kind and generous people, she says. They let local families set up tabs for their kids, who would hang out at The Goof with friends under the watchful eye of Hazel. “They took care of everybody, and they created a community.” Desrochers has celebrated every single one of her kids’ birthdays at The Goof; they’re now in their 30s. “It’s a very special place; it’s magic,” Desrochers says. “Every community should have this, and they don’t. We feel very blessed to live here.”
The number of former coworkers, friends and family eager to pay homage at the party is long. (“Are you in line for Hazel?” was overheard once or twice.) Sitting under three large pinata numbers spelling out 100, Hazel is surrounded by her birthday letter from King Charles, a framed hand-painted portrait that was gifted to her and a steady stream of well-wishers eager to take photos with her. “I know there’s always a lot of people (at my parties), but this is more than ever,” Hazel says.
Hazel remembers thinking at her 40th anniversary party that she would maybe waitress for one more year. She ended up working another 28 years after that. Her bosses were another thing she loved about working at The Goof. In her final years, Chau would pick her up for work every day, then drop her off back at home after her shift.
Hazel still comes by the diner to eat once in a while, where Chau makes her favourite for her: liver. Although Chau does refuse to take her money: “He says, ‘no, Hazel, you’re family.’” She makes sure to come only once every month or two; she says she would never want to take advantage of her family’s generosity.
And that’s just Hazel, too.
