The lights are going out on one of Montreal Chinatown's most beloved institutions as Wing Noodles prepares to close its doors permanently at the end of November 2025. After nearly 80 years of producing Chinese food products and more than 40 years before that as an import-export business, the Lee family is retiring, marking the end of an era for the community.
A Family Legacy Ends
Garnet Lee, 67, who handles administration for the business, began working at the factory when he was just eight years old. His first job involved packaging egg roll skins in wax paper. His older brother Gilbert, 73, who runs the factory operations, needs two knee replacements, making it impossible to continue the demanding work.
"We both decided we're working hard enough as it is," Garnet Lee explained. "Money is money, but health is more important, especially at this age." The brothers typically worked 80 to 100 hours per week, with Gilbert not taking a vacation in over 30 years.
The closure decision became inevitable when considering the challenges of relocating the aging operation. "It would take at least a year to renovate a new place, and then another year once everything's moved for my brother to be with them to make sure everything's running properly before we retire," Lee said.
Four Generations of History
The Wing Noodles story spans four generations of the Lee family in Canada. Garnet's great-grandfather, Yin Geow Lee, arrived in 1880 to work on the railroad from Vancouver to eastern Canada. His grandfather, Hee Chong Lee, came in 1903 and eventually became co-owner of Wing Lung import/export business in 1905.
The import-export business paused during World War II, and in 1946, Hee Chong Lee rebranded as Wing Hing Lung, shifting to producing fresh Chinese noodles, egg roll, and won ton covers. The company expanded through the 1950s and 1960s under his sons Arthur and Samuel, adding dry noodles, fortune cookies, almond cookies, sauces, and portion packs to their product line.
Garnet and Gilbert Lee, along with their cousin George, took over the company in the early 1980s, renaming it Wing Noodles Ltd. George retired in 2023.
The Factory That Time Forgot
The Wing Noodles complex at the corner of de la Gauchetière and Côté Streets spans multiple floors across two buildings, connected by hallways and freight elevators. The factory contains decades-old machinery producing everything from fresh rice noodles to the bilingual fortune cookies served in many Montreal Chinese restaurants.
The company produced approximately 20,000 fortune cookies daily using three automated machines, a far cry from the early days when two women made 4,000 cookies by hand each day. The fortunes, originally conceived by Garnet's father Arthur, have evolved over time. "One fortune that was popular was, 'Food is sex.' We had to take that out," Lee recalled.
Perhaps the most poignant space in the complex is the apartment of Lee's late grandmother, Fong Shee Lee, who died in 1993 at age 102. The modest dwelling remains virtually unchanged, complete with her original 1964 stove and walls covered in family photos. The space served as a cultural meeting point where she hosted weekly family gatherings and entertained friends from the Chinese community.
Community Reaction and Uncertain Future
The announcement of Wing Noodles' closure has sparked an outpouring of community support and sadness. "We didn't realize what effect we had on the community until we announced the closing and saw the amount of people that have come by to express their appreciation and their sadness," Lee said.
The building's future remains uncertain. The Lee family sold the property to real estate developers Jeremy Kornbluth and Brandon Shiller's Hillpark Capital in 2021. Initial plans to replace the buildings with a condo highrise were halted when the provincial government granted heritage status to Chinatown's institutional core in 2022, including Wing Noodles.
Bill Wong, director of the Montreal Chinatown Development Council, hopes investors will purchase both buildings for a mixed-use project that could include "some sort of exhibition hall or museum." Meanwhile, the JIA Foundation plans to host an exhibition about Wing Noodles' cultural history in May 2026 and is organizing a retirement banquet for the Lee brothers on December 6.
As Garnet Lee prepares to turn off the lights for the final time, he reflects on the business that was both workplace and home. "We thought we were just going to turn off the lights and fade away, but some people thought different," he said. "It's very humbling when people say they want to turn this place into a museum."
