New businesses and non-profit organizations regularly open and move in Saskatoon. Today, the StarPhoenix talks to Jon Tyson, who opened a new location for his Pink Cadillacs restaurant last August in the completely remodelled old Saboroso Brazilian Steakhouse location on 8th Street.
When you walk into the new Pink Cadillacs retro-themed restaurant, you’ll see the front end of a 1957 Dodge Regent staring at you. Off to the side is the back end of the car. Tyson has made the two sections of the classic car (affectionately called “White Lightning”) into a couple of the most popular booths in his restaurant.
Tyson, who used to run the German Concordia club, also owns a Pink Cadillacs restaurant in Hampton Village, but was recently forced to close his original Willowgrove location due to COVID-19 taking a big bite out of that business. He hopes to reopen there at some point but, if you want to try out his vintage car booths, you’ll have to visit him on 8th Street.
Jon Tyson opened Pink Cadillacs & T-Bird Lounge on 8th Street in August 2021. The restaurant and lounge brings back the days when malt shops were popular, with vintage decor from several decades ago. PHOTO BY MICHELLE BERG /Saskatoon StarPhoenix
Q: What can people expect to find at Pink Cadillacs?
A: Everything in here is pretty much ’50s and ’60s decor. Not just Elvis and Marilyn but all the big movie stars and musicians. We have pictures like that all over the place. We have a 1957 car inside the 8th Street location. We’ve got lots of old stuff from that era. So when people walk in, they listen to some good tunes in a nice atmosphere and look around, because there’s so much stuff on the walls.
8th Street is a step up. There’s something for everybody. We have a designated lounge and a beautiful patio in the summer time. There’s a Looney Tunes room from the ’50s and ’60s that people can book for birthdays or anniversaries, seating 24 people. Even younger families with their kids come in here and there’s so much for them to see. We still have the old cartoons from the ’50s and ’60s like Popeye, Betty Boop and Roadrunner.
Once I learned how to make things work and how you could improve some things over at (the first Pink Cadillacs at) Willowgrove, then we came here.
Q: What made you decide on the name Pink Cadillacs?
A: Because when Elvis made it big, he bought his mom a pink Cadillac from 1957 — I guess just to signify that he had something going. Pink Cadillacs’ name was something you could play on so much. And I like the name. It’s catchy. But a pink Cadillac is something that I won’t ever own. I couldn’t afford a Cadillac!
Q: What’s on your menu?
A: Our menu is pretty much 99-per-cent gluten free. We make everything from scratch. Our meat is fresh, never frozen. Our burgers are gluten free. The biggest thing is that we do all our burgers fresh every day. And there is nothing added. It is just purely 100-per-cent ground chuck, so it’s the top of the line that you can buy. We have everything from cool different burgers to not just hotdogs but a mac and cheese dog, or a Ritchie V dog. I try and keep everything as much as I can back to the way how it used to be, or what I heard it used to be like, but with a twist. Not just a burger but you’ll have your pork burger like the Elvis (Doo Wop) Burger. It’s got the peanut butter and bananas on a pork burger with bacon and it’s delicious.
But we have something for everybody. And in the lounge we’ve got different draft at an extremely, extremely reasonable price. Even our food is very, very well priced. Realistically, I should probably increase my pricing because everything else has gone up. A kid’s meal is $4 on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and that includes a drink and a cookie and our cookies are the size of your face. They’re huge and kids love them because there’s nothing like giving a child a homemade chocolate chip cookie that’s the size of your face. And we do the old-fashioned milkshakes too, where it’s actually done with the really hard ice cream.
Q: Do you have a signature menu item?
A: Our Caddy Burger is one of our most popular, and that’s because we make our own caddy sauce here. It’s almost like a buffalo relish. It’s got a bit of a kick to it. And of course it’s got the patty and bacon and cheddar cheese and onion rings, lettuce, tomato. That’s probably our biggest, most-popular burger.
Q: Do you serve breakfast?
A: Yeah, our breakfast menu is only $7 and that gets you a traditional (meal) — we call it a Dream Lovers breakfast. That’s bacon, eggs and hash browns and toast. And our hash browns are homemade, they’re not like the shredded ones. They’re actually red potatoes. We cook our potatoes and then we pan fry them.
Q: What sets you apart from other restaurants?
A: Our biggest thing is the atmosphere. You want to have that wow factor. You want to have people come in and say, ‘Hey, this is awesome! We haven’t seen anything like this.’ Actually, I’ve been here since 1989 in Saskatoon and there’s been nothing like it, to this extent anyway. You put all the best things together and you’ve got ‘here.’ Hopefully anyone that comes in here finds something they want to go back to. Something to remember.
Q: You are still hoping to reopen your Willowgrove location?
A: If everything goes according to plan, we will be opening Willowgrove again but just as a Mom’s breakfast and coffee house for now. I wouldn’t do the ’50s diner style in there. I’d try to make it with different kinds of coffees and that kind of stuff.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
Jon Tyson inside Pink Cadillacs & T-Bird Lounge on 8th Street. PHOTO BY MICHELLE BERG /Saskatoon StarPhoenix
Pink Cadillacs & T-Bird Lounge
Owner:
Jon Tyson
Address:
2600 – 8th Street East, #340
Hours:
Sunday to Thursday, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 9 a.m. to 11 p.m.
Website:
www.pinkcadillacsdiner.com
Check:
Facebook, Instagram
Keyword: Saskatoon diner Pink Cadillacs brings 1950s retro experience, including two vintage car booths