Local restaurant chain succumbs to development pressures (1997)

Here's a sweet news piece from 1997 about the closing day of the last of the Aristocratic restaurants in Vancouver. Next time you visit the giant Chapters store at Granville and Broadway take note of the neon sign that greets you as you enter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weDalBbk1GM

This clip is one of many gems that V.I.A. reader Rob Richardson has dug up from his collection. The source is a vast archive of VHS tapes that he recorded himself or has managed to collect from thrift stores, flea markets, storage lockers, yard sales, contacts with people in other parts of Canada and the U.S., and anywhere he can manage. He's driven over to Vancouver Island and as far down as Olympia, Washington to rescue analogue goodness before they've wound up in the scrapper and we're happy to bring you a Vancouver-centric clip each week.

Here are some others we've shared:

- That time the Masters of the Universe live show played the Coliseum - 1987

- A truck rips around INSIDE the gates of BC Place - 1985

- "Nice tooter!" CBC News broadcast from New Years - 1985

- Vancouver East Neighbourhood Television - 1985

- Gigantic bottle of O'Keefe's Extra Old Stock appears on the Vancouver Skyline - 1987

- "Get a head start" with The Province Newspaper - Early 1980's

- Malacca Rattan commercial - 1987

- Vancouver Television (VTV) promo - 1998

- Celebrities, back when it was known as the Crazy Horse Cabaret - 1977

- The Captain says Aye Aye and Goodbye to 175 pounds, smokes and alcoholism! - early 2000's

- "Look, a real mugger!", commercial for the Vancouver Playhouse - 1987