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Humble Chicken Wing Changed Course of History Here
Posted: September 1st, 2001Posted By: Mike G

One doesn't normally attach much historical significance to a bar located in a strip mall. But an exception could be made for Cat's Caboose. In fact, the whole course of St. Catharines' social and cultural development of the past 25 years can be traced to this south-end establishment. More on that later.

As you may have read this summer, the owner of Cat's passed away suddenly in June. In his will, he left the Glenridge Plaza watering hole to Brock University. The bar/eatery was eventually sold to a group of 10 South St. Catharines residents. It?s set to re-open early this month after several weeks of renovation work. Group spokesman Joe Kushner doesn't believe Cat's can recapture all its past glory because of changed demographics and increased competition, but he's convinced it has a role as a neighbourhood pub and restaurant.

Kushner is also well aware there's work to be done in bringing back customers. The bar had gone a bit to seed in recent years. Driving past the plaza on any given night, you'd be hard-pressed to find more than a handful of cars in front of Cat's. This is a far cry from the situation when I arrived in St. Catharines in late 1979. Cat's was a place to be on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, jammed with Brock students and other 20 somethings. A friend of mine claimed, in attempting to explain Cat's renown, that it was the first bar independent of a hotel to open in the city.

The friend, a St. Catharines native, was no historian, but he drank a lot in the 1970s so, naturally, I bowed to his expertise despite some nagging doubts. Turns out he was wrong. The first non-hotel bar distinction went to the old William J's Restaurant and Tavern on St. Paul Street in 1966. However, Kushner says Cat's was the first American-style roadhouse to open in Canada. I'm not entirely sure how that's defined, other than perhaps casual dining with a party-hearty atmosphere.

But here's the main thing. According to local lore, Cat's was the first bar/eatery in Canada to serve Buffalo-style chicken wings when it opened in 1977. And not just any old wings. The recipe was borrowed from Buffalo?s hallowed Anchor bar, the originator of this chicken delicacy.

The arrival of wings in St. Catharines helped spur the growth of another phenomenon of the late 1970s - slo-pitch softball. Grown men and women started playing in droves, knowing that afterwards they could all head to a bar, sloppily fill their faces with wings and then wash down the spicy, greasy concoction with copious amounts of over-carbonated draft beer.

This lifestyle wasn?t only socially acceptable, it was expected. Within a few years, the city was over-run with bars serving wings. And we had turned into a community of wing-chewin', beer-swillin', hamstring pullin', ball cap wearin' jocks. A culture had been born.

Cast your mind back to 1977 and imagine this, if you will. What if Cat's had not borrowed that recipe from the Anchor in Buffalo, but, instead, had got hold of the secret instructions for cooking poulet roti flambe au pastis from Chez Maurice in Paris.

Think of the renaissance it would have spawned. A generation of St. Catharines residents would have been raised on haute cuisine, with restaurants throughout the city madly trying to compete with Cat's.

Following shortly would be a cry for more ballet teachers, laments over the lack of opera in the city, demands for weekly poetry readings at the library, calls for huge budget jumps for Rodman Hall and the Niagara Symphony.

The Shaw Festival would have moved here, building a palatial theatre in the low-level parking lot behind St. Paul Street. The King Street courthouse would become its satellite venue.

A new landscaped, fountain-filled civic square would have been built, featuring a bustling farmers' market.

All downtown offices would be occupied and there'd be full employment in the city.

But no-o-o-o-o-o!

Cat's had to bring in wings.

Hey,still got that recipe, doncha?

Doug Herod's opinion column appears here Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. He can be reached by e-mail at: dherod@scs.southam.ca

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