Quon's

Quon's, established in 1918, is a Chinatown café frequented by private detectives Frankie Drake and Trudy Clarke, first introduced in Season 1 of Frankie Drake Mysteries.

Quon's is owned and operated by Wendy Quon. In the backrooms, one will find Chinese medicine being practiced and a local whiskey speakeasy where mah-jongg is played for money.

History
The first Chinese café (a term referring to Chinese owned establishments that served a combination of western and Chinese food) was first opened by Sing Tom in 1901 at on Queen Street West opposite Toronto City Hall. Like the laundry, the small cafe was particularly suited to Chinese social institutions such as the clan where several Chinese “cousins” would invest in a restaurant (which, like the laundry, also served as a home as well as a place of business), share the work, and keep business and personal expenses to a minimum, thereby insuring some small margin of profit.

By 1912, there were 19 Chinese cafés, half of which were in The Ward district. By the early 1920s, this figure rose to around 100 cafés and restaurants, but not without barriers, prohibitions, and regular constabulary raids. Moral reformers and xenophobes campaigned against Chinese businesses with accusations of being dens of iniquity and a danger to white women. By 1914, the provincial government introduced legislation barring white women from working in Chinatown, but it was not enforced well for over one hundred white women were recorded under the employ by Chinese establishments in Toronto by 1923.

Whisper Sisters
Ties That Bind