The restaurant was started by Hermas Gibeau in 1932 to serve his trademark drink the Gibeau Orange Julep, reportedly based on a Gibeau family recipe. Before founding the first location, Gibeau sold his drinks at
Belmont Park, a popular amusement park at the time. The original storefront he opened, located on
rue Sherbrooke Est, was not shaped like an orange. The cult following that developed revolved around his second location, the Big Orange, located on
Décarie Blvd. For a brief time, the Julep was noted for
roller skating waitresses, who brought food orders to cars. Customers today order and receive their food at the counter. Food can then be taken away or eaten at one of the picnic tables. The restaurant opens at 8 am and operates until 3 am on Fridays and Saturdays, and until 2 am the rest of the week. An August 9, 2019 article by the
Montreal Gazette cited an earlier (August 9, 1977) article on the restaurant: “At Gibeau’s Julep, the 1950s never really left. It’s a scene that has outlasted LSD, the Vietnam war and thus far pollution,” Juan Rodriguez reported, in an Aug. 9, 1977 feature on the Décarie Blvd. landmark.” Rodriguez, the original author, emphasized the importance of the restaurant as a social hub, separate from its food or drink.
Structure In 1945, Gibeau built an orange concrete sphere two stories high to house his restaurant. It is believed Gibeau intended to live there with his wife and children. The Big Orange, the last standing operating Orange Julep, was once one of several Gibeau Orange Julep restaurants in the Montreal area and beyond, many shaped like a giant orange. A 1969 Montreal Gazette article by Peter Lanken reported: “The original Orange Julep was conceived, in 1945… It was on Décarie Boulevard, it was round, it was concrete, and it was orange. It had a small square window on the second floor, which made it look like something out of a children’s book...” Though Lanken refers to The Big Orange as the original restaurant, it was in fact the second location, though the first orange-shaped one. The restaurant and its orange sphere were rebuilt, from a design by architect Olius P. Bois, to be larger and further back from the roadway when it was widened to become the
Décarie Expressway in 1966. Its shell consists of fiberglass segments that were ordered from a local pool manufacturer, covering a laminated wood shell frame. The whole building is illuminated from the outside in the evenings. This style of building is called
mimetic architecture, where a building is shaped in such a way that it references the purpose of the building. ==Drink and other products==