There's something eerily familiar about Happy's Chinese Restaurant even if you haven't been there for close to 30 years. You walk down the short flight of stairs off Garema Place, a sharp turn and you're there, at the Great Wall of China, the mural as fresh as the day it was painted.
There's the smell of food wafting from the kitchen, they've been using a lot of the same recipes since day one; tables with lazy Susans; dim lights which look like lanterns; a member of the Chan family to greet you with a smile.
It's been that way since December 1, 1962, when Happy Chan opened Canberra's first Chinese restaurant. Not a lot has changed, and the Chan family wouldn't have it any other way.
Happy's grandson Gavin is the next generation to work in the family business. He took over the reigns in 2007, returning to Canberra from Sydney after his first daughter was born.
He remembers growing up in the restaurant, washing dishes in the kitchen, taking orders to tables, as a little eight year old. He didn't like it very much back then but it was just the way things were.
While his grandfather was pretty much retired by then, his parents Dylan and Linda were in charge, with his uncle Jason, he remembers Happy coming in every Friday night and sitting at a table in the corner with a group of his friends from the Lions Club or other business associates from the Canberra Club, the trademark smile never leaving his face.
"And that's why he was called Happy," says Gavin, "he was always smiling, he couldn't understand English very well and if you tried talking to him he'd just sit there and smile and laugh, he was just a happy person, he wouldn't worry about much, just brush it aside and keep going, keep smiling."
Happy Chan, who passed away in 2005 at the age of 79, was perhaps a man ahead of his time. He left China and came to Australia in the 1950s, working as a vegetable grower in Queensland where his met his wife Vi, who was well known as being the life of the party with her blonde bee hive hair piled high on her head.
They moved to Canberra and opened the first Happy's in Queanbeyan in 1959 to take advantage of the liquor laws which saw pubs and clubs close early in Canberra.
"Back then you couldn't drink in Canberra after a certain hour so people would head over the border to drink in Queanbeyan, they'd drink at the league's club and then head to Happy's for a meal before heading home," says Gavin.
In 1962 they opened the restaurant in a basement spot in Garema Place. In those days you could park right out front.
"I don't even know how granddad learned to cook, he just used the recipes his father gave him and we've used the same ones ever since," says Gavin.
In those days there was a section called "Australian menu" on the menu, offering t-bone steaks and roast chicken alongside the Cantonese favourites such as beef and blackbean, sweet and sour pork and honey chicken.
"After all these years I reckon our honey chicken is one of the best in Canberra," says Gavin. "It's one of our most popular dishes."
The mural was painted by Jason in 1975, it took six months to finish and has always been a favourite feature with customers new and old.
Gavin says the customers are the reason the restaurant is still going strong after 60 years. During lockdown people who hadn't eaten at the restaurant for years began ordering takeaway, supporting a local business doing it tough.
"Happy's has always been a small family business and part of that family are our customers who've stuck with us through thick and thin," he says.
"I love it when people come in and tell us they had their first date here 40 years ago, or people who came here as university students who are now bringing their own families in, we had a reunion a while back of men who'd been to ADFA and now a few of them were retired generals.
"I'm not great with names but I'm good with faces and remembering orders and there's nothing that brings us greater satisfaction than seeing happy faces."
And that is why this Canberra icon couldn't have a more fitting name.
