The Big Bet
Author: Connie Carson
Connie is a well-known local story-teller and professional who has a passion for the history of the City of Belleville, in particular, the downtown streets.
THE BIG BET
THE LONDON LUNCH STORY
In 1930, during the Great Depression, 43-year-old John Kikes from Ohio, his wife Lettie and their two children arrived in town. John had lived in Belleville for a few years and worked for his uncle Nick at Pappas Billiards.
They opened the London Lunch Restaurant at 172 Front Street in Belleville, sandwiched between Bishop Seeds and Fahey’s Men’s Wear opposite McAnnany Street. It was a busy coach stop and ticket information centre as well. The stylish waitresses in their black and white uniforms with starched collars and caps added another level of quality service to the patrons. It was also a favourite 24-hour upscale dining spot for the high roller poker players that frequented the back room of Ed Thomas Cigar Store.
A regular gambler at Ed Thomas’s poker den was the sturdy dark-haired John Kikes. On slow nights at his diner, John was known to empty the cash register and head up the street to Ed Thomas’s place for the late-night poker games. One very late evening, after a devastating losing streak, John Kikes had lost nearly all his money. In desperation, he made the biggest bet of his roller-coaster career; he went all in and bet the pot against the keys to the London Lunch Restaurant—and lost! He literally lost the restaurant on one poker hand!
But Lady Luck smiled in his favour one last time. An out-of-town heavy, or so the tale goes, decided to back him, give him another chance. What he had to pledge, no one knows or won’t say. Kikes won it all back with enough left to pay his mystery benefactor and return to running the restaurant. In 1948 he sold the diner and moved his family to Oakland, California, where he passed away in 1952.
The legendary backroom shenanigans of former local high rollers are recounted brilliantly by C.W (Bill Hunt) in his book, Punters, Plungers & Bankers.
