Landmark Italian eatery on East Hastings closes doors
Felicia’s the kind of place where no one went home hungry
In an era of cookie-cutter chain restaurants, Felicia’s stood out.
Part of it was the decor, a wonderful mix of thrift store Van Goghs and Picassos, maps of Italy, and photos of movie stars such as Sophia Loren, Elizabeth Taylor and James Dean.
There was an Elvis clock, a Lady Di doll and a pepper mill that looked like a baseball bat, checkered tablecloths, bamboo shade ceilings and faux brick walls.
But the big attraction for generations of customers was the old-school Italian comfort food — chicken cacciatore simmered in wine with mushrooms, onions, green peppers and olives, fettuccine with sliced chicken in a white sauce, and the best damn baked lasagna in East Vancouver.
“Delicious,” it boasted on the menu, and it was.
“A co-worker here swears the best lasagna he’s ever had was from Felicia’s,” said Patricia Barnes, executive director of the Hastings North Business Improvement Association.
“She used to put the cheese inside the dough and give you cheese balls — I’ve had them for the board. It’s classic homemade cooking. (The owners) Felicia and Lucy were fantastic characters, always fun to talk with.”
The restaurant at 2492 East Hastings has been a Hastings-Sunrise icon since 1980.
But it quietly closed during the novel coronavirus pandemic. Andy Yan said it will be missed. The director of Simon Fraser University’s City Program has lived in the neighbourhood all his life, and Felicia’s was a touchstone.
“It’s a beloved East Van institution, from the time (when the neighbourhood was filled with) working-class Italian-Canadians,” said Yan. “It had character, history and patina, it was layered over 40 years. You barely have any restaurants today that survive four years.”
Yan is a food lover, and at Felicia’s he loved his anchovy and mushroom panzerotti, which is like a pizza folded into a sandwich.
He laments that with the closing of Felicia’s and Nick’s on Commercial, it’s the end of “a certain constellation of Italian food, from a certain era.”
The restaurant was owned by a mother and daughter team, Lucia (Lucy) Colonna and Felicia Scigliano.
Mom (Lucy) did most of the cooking, while Felicia usually served.
Neither was available for comment Tuesday — the restaurant is completely cleaned out, and they didn’t leave a contact number. But there was a note on the door thanking “our loyal customers over the years” for “the good times, laughs and community connection.”
In a 2012 interview, Colonna said she came from Bari, Italy, “down to the south, right by the boot.” She initially immigrated to Winnipeg, then moved to Vancouver.
“Hastings was nothing when we started,” said Scigliano. “The odd car would come up here. But we just stuck it out, worked really, really hard, figured out what the customers really want in the food.”
They discovered the customers did not want some fancy dish that was more about the presentation than the portion.
“They want to eat a lot of food, and take it home with them,” said Scigliano. “They don’t want to leave hungry.” At Felicia’s, nobody went home hungry — the portions were enormous.
It was like a home-cooked meal, and the restaurant had an easygoing, family atmosphere.
“It’s really sad to see them go,” said Barnes of the Hastings North BIA.
“Businesses are struggling, many of them are doing their best to survive. But it’s tough, revenues are down. It’s tough to make a go of it right now.”