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Article 26 of 111
This article first appeared in the June 2, 2021 issue of the The Low Down to Hull and Back News.
Reprinted with permission. Search complete list of Low Down Articles.
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Tulip Valley: a look back and ahead
New owners have motel, resto plans
By y Hunter Cresswel
If walls could talk...
Back in the day Tulip Valley Restaurant and Motel customers could order a special 'ginger ale' and get a tall, cold glass of beer delivered to their table.
While the 'ginger ales' were technically ales, there was more hops and malted barley in those glasses than ginger. This was all before the business got its liquor license, so it had to be kept on the low, owner Dan Faasen explained.
Back then, Dan's father and the founder of the restaurant and motel, Thomas Faasen, would travel down to Ontario to buy the 'ginger ale' and bring it up to be served to guests who knew the code word.
This is only one of hundreds of stories that occurred at the Chelsea landmark business - now called La Vallée Restaurant & Motel - during its more than 60 years of operation.
Over six decades of serving food, welcoming guests, live music, dart nights, and spaghetti supper fundraisers came to an end on March 26 when the doors closed. But they'll open again in the future.
After five years of trying to sell the business and property, Dan inked a deal in April with the duo running the popular Wakefield restaurant Le Hibou, Una McDonnell and Christina Stobert.
Stobert and McDonnell said they aren't ready to announce concrete plans yet, but McDonnell wrote that they're stoked to hop on the motel revival trend and to serve locally-sourced dishes.
"We'll be vintage, we'll be modern, you'll be caffeinated, cocktailed, and well-fed. We won't tell you the motel name, but if you think of an iconic hotel relationship had by one our favourite Quebecers - Leonard Cohen - you'll get there," McDonnell wrote in a recent email to The Low Down, possibly referencing Cohen's 1974 song, "Chelsea Hotel #2."
She added that it used to be her watering hole, and thanked both Dan and his wife Odette LaRoque.
"I'm glad somebody bought the business and has an interest in it," Dan said, adding that people have approached him in the past with offers to buy the land and plans to tear the building down. "I wish them the best of luck."
According to the Quebec land registry website, Dan sold the property to McDonnell and Stobert on April 22 for $499,999
In 1958 Thomas Faasen, an immigrant from Holland, opened Tulip Valley with his wife Cecile Leblanc, who he met in Montreal. Billy Wilson built the 100-person restaurant and four room motel, Dan said. Thomas named it Tulip Valley because of his dutch heritage and Leblanc landscaped the property with tulip flowers.
Thomas and Leblanc raised Dan and his twin brother Chris in a small apartment before moving into the apartment above the restaurant.
It wasn't just a restaurant and motel at first, there were also two gas pumps out front that filled up thirsty gas tanks travelling along Hwy 105, until the pumps closed in 1995.
"At seven years old we were cutting french fries and pumping gas," Dan said about he and his brother's childhood at the restaurant and motel.
In 2001 Dan and his wife, Odette, bought the business from his family.
The couple lives in Farrellton and plan on staying in the area through retirement. He said he's keeping busy finishing work on their home, which he has been renovating for nine years.
"I haven't had a weekend off in a long time," Dan said.