The Lion Pub’s 45th anniversary: A reunion to remember
The Golden Lion Pub: we all know it, we all love it. With its cheery yellow exterior, huge terrace and homebrewed beer, it’s the ideal place to relax and have some fun when it’s hot like it has been lately. Owned by the Groves family, the Lion has always been a place to connect, meet old friends and make news ones, and now it is approaching a huge milestone: this year marks its 45th anniversary, and the pub is preparing to celebrate in style this coming Saturday, July 7.
“We’ve been planning for two months, making sure there’s something for everyone. It’s going to be the party of the decade, maybe even of the millennium!” predicted co-owner of the pub, Stan Groves, with a grin.
His brother, Kevin, the other coowner, added: “We’re gathering Townshippers from coast to coast to coast! It’s going to be a blast from the past. Lots of people from the good ol’ days will be there.”
The big 45th year bash will be a whirlwind of music, a mechoui, and of course, beer. The Groves’ are doubling the anniversary party as a kind of reunion for old regulars to come by and celebrate all together.
“We realize that it’s a little odd to celebrate 45 years instead of 50, but why wait?” said Stanley.
Kevin agreed, adding, “It’s going to be old school. A lot of the guests of honour are older. It’s now or never because anything could happen. It might be the last time we’ll get to see them.”
The “guests of honour” in question are Lennoxville music legends, according to the Groves. Stan excitedly announced that the Rocky River Band would be reuniting for the occasion, with original members Dennis Lajoie and Penny Doheny.
“Guys from back then are going to love it, it’s a real blast from the past,” he said.
According to Stan, Mick Hall is also coming back, all the way from Victoria, B.C. “He was a well-known guitarist,” Commented Stan, explaining that a friend of Mick’s started a Gofundme campaign to help get him here, for one day and one day only. “It only took one day to raise the money, too. Townshippers all over Canada raised funds,” he continued. “Butch Coulter is coming too, all the way from Germany! He’s a legendary harmonica player. I’m sure the party is just going to be one major jamfest.”
The musical guest list got a big buzz going, Stan said. “There’s a lot of reconnection going on on Facebook. People figuring out who’s going to be there, inviting others,” added Kevin. “There’s going to be great food and great music. We’ve got country, rock, blues, classic rock, we’ve got pretty much everything covered except classical music.”
Kevin’s band, KGB, will also be performing on Saturday, along with Jeff Coates and local favorites Queen Street. The Groves brothers also suspect many other performers will be showing up on the night of, so they plan on setting up a tent outside in the parking lot for shows and clearing some of the indoor tables to make room for dancing.
How it all started
Getting ready for the momentous day, the Groves can barely sit still they have so much to do. But back in 1973 when their father, Stanley Sr. bought the pub, Stanley and Kevin weren’t allowed to set foot in the place.
“That is, except to clean and do grunge work,” laughed Stanley. “We couldn’t even sneak in! Everyone knew who we were.”
Stanley Sr. had been a professor at Bishop’s University before establishing the now instantly recognizable pub. According to Stanley, he teamed up with two other colleagues, Robert Barnett and David Seale, to make it happen.
“Back then, there was only the Georgian, really, and that was more of a hotel bar,” Stan commented. “There were no pubs in Lenn, but Bob had been in England and he knew what the real pub scene was like, and that was the flavour they decided to adopt for the Lion.”
Glenys, the matriarch of the pub, so to speak, was hesitant at first at the idea of running a bar.
“The Lion was my husband’s idea. I wasn’t thrilled at first, to be honest, because my parents were both teetotalers. Stanley knew I didn’t like it, so he promised we’d only run for five years but look at us now!” she laughed. “We have a lot of fun.”
Given that the Lion’s founders were all BU professors, and its close proximity to the university, it only made sense that the pub would become a hangout for local students. According to Stan, his father and the other founders made it their mandate to hire students whenever they could.
Stanley Groves Sr. passed away in August of 2014, but his sons have always maintained the policy to support local students.
“They knew that students are always looking for summer jobs, part-time winter jobs to pay tuition. They weren’t cooks, because it wouldn’t be sustainable to re-train new ones every other semester, but server jobs? Bartenders, waitresses, doormen, they were always students,” Stan said. “They hired at least 20 students a year, and recently it’s been much more because we hire DJS and stuff like that. Half the staff have always been students. We tried to do the math, and we’ve hired easily over 1,000 students over the years.”
Stan added that local students did much more than bring business and staff to the Lion. They also brought music.
“So many of our performing bands are student-based. There is so much talent at the university,” he said. “Mondays used to be slow, so we introduced acoustic night, since my brother is a musician. I swear, back in ’73 it was like we had America’s Got Talent or American Idol in there. Now Acoustic Tuesdays are a fixture at the Lion.”
“It’s a nice scene, not too intimidating, and every year we are blown away by the amazing level of talent,” he continued. “So many bands were created thanks to Acoustic Tuesdays. They get exposure in a more relaxed environment, musicians get to meet each other, talk, get inspired.”
The family reminisced about the beginnings of the Lion. Stan said that the pub was definitely not the same when it started: the old renovated Victorian home had a capacity of only about 120 people when it was first purchased. There was no terrace back then either; that came later. Glenys shared that the old house even had a gun shop under the den, hiding a bunch of antique rifles. As business improved, the Lion grew.
“In 1990, we expanded, upping the capacity to 208 seats. We have the café-bar
out back now too. We’ve always been on the go,” said Stan with a smile.
His mother jumped in, adding that the big windows along the side of the pub were not always there.
“I became the default decorator, even though I don’t know the first thing about it. When we expanded, I wanted big windows like we have now, but the men were worried their students would see them at the bar,” she said. “So, they insisted on one or two small windows. I added curtains, for extra privacy. They all laughed at me saying they were hideous, but that’s what you get for putting me in charge of decorating!”
“Beer back in ‘73 must have cost something like $2.50 a pitcher, if you can believe that,” added Kevin. “We had to close at midnight at first.”
Quebec’s first microbrewery
Another thing that has definitely changed at the Lion is the addition of their own microbrewery right next door. The brewery building was at first a garage that the Groves had bought after being pressured by the town to add parking spaces to their business.
“In ’73 we used to import beer from England. Brown ale was super popular,” explained Stanley. “Our dad went to Ottawa and met an English guy who had his own microbrewery. He flew to B.C. to see the Troller Pub. They were the first microbrewery in Canada, before that, the big breweries had monopoly.”
“I lived out in Victoria at the time. My band played there,” added Kevin. “Dad got all kinds of info from them, used them as an example to show the government that it was something that could work here in Quebec. It took two or three years of petitioning to get them on board.”
And convince them they did. The Lion’s microbrewery became the first ever in the province, and they served their first pint of Lion’s Pride beer on July 1, 1986, special for Canada Day. Lion’s Pride is now one of the pub’s bestsellers, but Glenys’ personal favorite is the Ambree d’amour.
“It was a special brew for Valentine’s Day, so my husband had the idea of making it with aphrodisiacs. There used to be a health grocery store over on the other corner, where there’s the Vietnamese place now. My husband went over there and asked if they would have anything like that. They brought out a little vial, my husband looked at it and said, ‘Okay, we’ll take some by the gallon’,” recounted Glenys, laughing. “When we served it on Valentine’s day, I set up a little suggestion box full of hearts, asking customers who tried it to tell us how they felt afterwards. We had a hoot re-reading all of those the next morning!”
The beer was almost a one-time only special, but when the Groves entered the Mondial de Bière in Montreal, they wanted to try participating with many different types of beer. The Ambree d’amour was added to the list on a whim, and it was a good thing too, because the brew won People’s Choice that year, and is to this day a staple at the Lion.
Over the years, the Groves’ have collected mountains of souvenirs. The annual Halloween celebrations at the Lion account for many: up until recently, Kevin used to find the biggest pumpkin he could at the local Mcdonald farm, bring it into the pub and carve it. He remembers one record year where they somehow managed to bring in on that weighed 900 pounds.
Another memorable year was the year of the referendum. In 1995, the winners of the annual costume contest were two jokesters dressed up as Siamese twins; one half Canada and the other, Quebec. Glenys remembers the year our current prime-minister, Justin Trudeau, visited the pub.
“This was back in 2007 when he was starting to prepare for his political career,” she said. “There was a young Liberals Club at BU, and they invited him to come visit. He came and after they were done visiting Bishop’s, they all came and stopped at the Lion.”
The Groves brothers also recall when Mcdonald’s threatened to sue them:
“Our chef, Connie, had created this burger, called the Connie Big Lion Burger,” explained Stanley, showing a picture of the burger in question. With its two layers and sesame bun, it rung a familiar bell. “Obviously, it’s inspired by the Big Mac, and Connie had re-jigged the old Mcdonald’s jingle to advertise for it on the radio: ‘Two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles on a sesame seed bun’. Well, Mcdonald’s didn’t like that, they sent a cease-and-desist.”
“We ceased and desisted,” said Kevin, laughing. “But it’s back for the 45th anniversary!”
Admission to the Lion will be free for the event. The pub will open at 2 p.m. The mechoui will begin at 5 p.m., and the bands will get into swing around 7:30 p.m. One thing is for sure, the night will be one that Lennoxville won’t soon forget.