Gibeau Orange Julep
Encyclopedia
The Gibeau Orange Julep restaurant (also known colloquially as OJ or The Big Orange) is a roadside attraction
and fast food restaurant
in Montreal
, Quebec
, Canada
. The building is in the shape of a giant orange, three stories high with a diameter of forty feet.
. In 1945, Gibeau built an orange concrete sphere two stories high to house his restaurant. It is believed Gibeau intended to live in there with his wife and children.
The restaurant and its orange sphere was rebuilt larger and further back from the roadway when it was widened as the Décarie Expressway in 1966. Its shell consists of plastic segments which were ordered from a local pool manufacturer, and the whole building could light up.
For a time, the Julep was noted for rollerskating waitresses but customers today order food in the more conventional fashion of a fast food restaurant. Rollerblading waiters and waitresses were available as recently as the 2000's. Food can then be taken away or eaten at one of a number of provided picnic tables. The restaurant operates 24 hours a day during summer and reduced hours in winter.
Today, it also hosts classic car and motorbike enthusiasts on Wednesday nights from May–August.
Roadside attraction
A roadside attraction is a feature along the side of a road, that is frequently advertised with billboards to attract tourists. In general, these are places one might stop on the way to somewhere else, rather than being a final or primary destination in and of themselves. The modern...
and fast food restaurant
Fast food restaurant
A fast food restaurant, also known as a Quick Service Restaurant or QSR within the industry itself, is a specific type of restaurant characterized both by its fast food cuisine and by minimal table service...
in Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. The building is in the shape of a giant orange, three stories high with a diameter of forty feet.
History
The restaurant was started by Hermas Gibeau in the 1932 to serve his trademark orange drink, Gibeau Orange Julep, similar but not identical to that of Orange JuliusOrange Julius
Orange Julius is a chain of fruit drink beverage stores. It has been in business since the late 1920s. The eponymous beverage is a mixture of orange juice, milk, sugar, ice and vanilla flavoring.- History :...
. In 1945, Gibeau built an orange concrete sphere two stories high to house his restaurant. It is believed Gibeau intended to live in there with his wife and children.
The restaurant and its orange sphere was rebuilt larger and further back from the roadway when it was widened as the Décarie Expressway in 1966. Its shell consists of plastic segments which were ordered from a local pool manufacturer, and the whole building could light up.
For a time, the Julep was noted for rollerskating waitresses but customers today order food in the more conventional fashion of a fast food restaurant. Rollerblading waiters and waitresses were available as recently as the 2000's. Food can then be taken away or eaten at one of a number of provided picnic tables. The restaurant operates 24 hours a day during summer and reduced hours in winter.
Today, it also hosts classic car and motorbike enthusiasts on Wednesday nights from May–August.
Drink and company
The drink, Gibeau Orange Julep, is now also sold via retail stores. The company, Gibeau Orange Julep, has had restaurants and drink bottling. The Big Orange was one of several Gibeau Orange Julep restaurants, many shaped like a giant orange, in the Montreal area, but it is the only one remaining. The original restaurant was on Sherbrooke street, and established in 1928, and was closed and torn down in 2009, was not shaped like a giant orange.External links
- Gibeau Orange Julep
- H Gibeau Orange Julep Inc on HiHenry.com
- Photos of the Julep on FlickrFlickrFlickr is an image hosting and video hosting website, web services suite, and online community that was created by Ludicorp in 2004 and acquired by Yahoo! in 2005. In addition to being a popular website for users to share and embed personal photographs, the service is widely used by bloggers to...
- The Gibeau Orange Julep at reviewguys.com
- The Big Orange at roadtripamerica.com