The Matchcover Storyteller

It’s not a barbecue restaurant matchcover, but it does have the word “piggy” on it, so I am conflicted on what album this 20-strike cover will go into  —  I have a few “pigs”, but not a specific collection  And, because I knew nothing about it, I looked it up, and encountered yet another option.

Chez Piggy opened in 1979 in Kingston, Ontario in an abandoned 1808 limestone horse stable!  Kingston has such a rich assemblage of stunning and historic architecture, and it prides itself on its culinary quantity, diversity and excellence.  Chez Piggy has fit the mould for46 years! The restaurant’s creators (I’m burying a lead here.) wanted  to bring to Kingston more flavours of the French, Spanish & Mediterranean influences and it  has maintained that through 46 years of operation downtown.

So there’s a lot of description of Chez Piggy out there but not a deep history.   What makes this matchcover maybe more interesting is the pedigree of its founders, Rose Richardson and her partner, Zalman Yanovsy.

Zal Yanovsky was born in 1944 in Toronto.  He was lead guitar and singer in The Lovin’ Spoonful, an iconic rock/folk group of the 1960s he founded in 1964 with John B. Sebastian.  People pointed with pride to the idea of a Canadian in such a popular and successful group.

In addition to Chez Piggy (1979), he and Rose opened Pan Chancho Bakery (1994).  The success of Chez Piggy produced “The Chez Piggy Cookbook” in 1998.  (Maybe a bit much to create a combo, but there it is.)

Zal Yanovsky died of a heart attack in Kingston in 2002.   His wife Rose died 3 years later, but not before creating a fund in his honour to assist The Food Sharing Project which has helped Kingstonians since 1982.  The fund is now known as the Rose and Zal Yanovsky School Breakfast Fund.

I only know of two matchcovers for Chez Piggy, this silver-on-black 20-strike and a red-on-white  –with a pig on it!.