Another scene from my 1990 East Hastings reference collection, this view looks east from West Hastings and prominently features the Save on Meats, four-storey building at 43 West Hastings. I’m not sure who originally owned the building, but it was built in 1891 and used to house Jones Tent and Awning. In the mid 1950’s, Sonny Wosk, owner of the neighbouring Wosks appliance store, purchased the building and hired Al DesLaureirs to run the meat department of the new Save on Meats, with a promise to sell the business to him one day. DesLaureirs grew the business and by 1960 opened its famous 33 stool, triple-horseshoe, bright yellow lunch counter. He later added a grocery and coffee shop inside the store. At one point it had a staff of 75 in the meat department.
The Flying Pig Neon Sign was created by Frank Dunlap of Wallace Neon, who renovated and reused the old 1940’s Jones Tent and Awning revolving sign and added the pigs. It’s now one of the last surviving examples of what was hundreds of similar sized neon signs that used to light this stretch of Hastings Street.
Wosk finally sold in 1980, just as this part of Hastings was starting to slip into economic decline. DesLauriers took ownership and continued to operate the business until he retired in 2009. The building then sat empty for nearly two years, then, according to the Vancouver Heritage Foundation, “Save-on-Meats was re-opened in 2011 by restaurant entrepreneur Mark Brand, who co-owned nearby restaurants Boneta, The Diamond and Sea Monstr Sushi. The revitalized Save-on-Meats includes a take-out window, a cafe and a butcher shop on the main floor. The upper floors contain a bakery, a linen and cleaning business staffed by neighbourhood locals, and a rooftop garden to supply produce for the diner. Brand introduced a number of social enterprise programs, including a partnership with Vancouver Community College to host skills training and a small business incubator, and a token program that distributed 80,000 tokens to community members, organizations and residents, which could be redeemed for a free meal. The revitalized restaurant has been featured in three reality TV shows: The Big Decision, Gastown Gamble (which aired on the Oprah Winfrey Network) and Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.”