Today we cast our eyes towards this tired, and badly renovated oldie on Ouellette Avenue. Left alone in a sea of nothingness, since the demolition of the old Mother’s Building & Joker’s Building to the north, what was once kind of hidden as you headed south on Ouellette is now very visible.
The house was built around 1890, and was originally home to J.D. Arthur Deziel and his family. Deziel was the clerk of the 7th Division Court. Also residing in the house in 1919 were:
Julia C. Deziel, no job listed
Leah Deziel, also a clerk of the 7th Division Court
Leo Deziel, no job listed
I’m certain that they must be some relation to whomever lent their name to Deziel Drive:
The photo above was taken August 13, 1973 by a Detroit News staff photographer. I’m guessing the photo was taken to run with a restaurant review for the Himalaya Dining Room, at 841 Ouellettte.
Looking at the notes on the back, it looks like it ran both in August 16, 1973 and December 16, 1977. Back in 1973, the house was in great shape. It retained the original windows, and slate roof, and the front has not yet been altered by the strange “porch” type addition on the front. Interesting to note the “Himalaya Dining Room” sign…
… is still standing 36 years later… While I don’t know anyone who’s eaten there, according to “The Google“, the place is still open? Anyone know? Anyone eaten there? If it is still open it would have to be one of Windsor’s oldest Indian restaurants I would think…
I never knew what was in that building. I thought it was a travel agency. I always liked this former house and wondered about what else has been lost on Ouellette Ave.
Interesting to see the old phone booth on the right of the picture in 1973. Kids today don’t even know what phone booths were.
Ughh, that building looked so much better in the red brick than that stucco and porch+awning addition Does stucco on brick get moldly or what is that behind the sign?
Chef Oza, patriarch of the family who owns the house, still cooks from time to time- despite being completely blind! The place is wild inside- like an Indian Ashram.
The picture from the seventies make the house look a lot better than it was in the late sixties.Then the A&P parking lot surrounded it with Union Gas office to the south.
It isn’t a porch that was added to the front, it is a roof covering step down into a basement clinic. I agree that it looked much better in the 70s.
Friends of mine have eaten there and apparently the food is fantastic. When he isn’t running the restaurant Chef Oza operates a cattle sancutary in India.
I’ve eaten there several times, but not recently. Some of the best meals I have ever had.
i’ve been wondering when this place would pop up on here. seeing as she sits all alone, i can only assume it’s just a matter of time till she’s brought down for MORE parking.
thanks Andrew!
I have eaten there many times over the years. It was a real experience – Chef Oza would come out of the kitchen and speak to each of us before cooking, making sure we ordered something that would suit us. I recall once asking for a glass of water (the spice was a little overwhelming), he said he wouldn’t serve water, it was like putting water on the fire, and preferred to serve beer, and some honey/banana yoghurt – so bring on the beer!…. His food was amazing always, and you needed about 4 hours to eat and enjoy the slow cooked curries, and made-to-order foods. Some menu items had to be ordered a few days in advance, I suppose so he could shop for them, and prepare.
My first visit was circa 1975, my last visit was about 2005 when Chef Oza cooked for a private gathering of about 8 of us. I have heard he is a Brahmin chef.
Funny this is posted today, I walked by this building just yesterday and thought of all the nights we spent with the family, eating their fine food – nothing like any other Indian Restaurant Windsor has ever seen.
Deziel Drive I believe is named after Lawrence Arthur Deziel who practised law with the Mctague law firm, was elected to the City Board of Control in the 50s, and became a judge on the County Court.
This is one of the few examples of Victorian Architecture in the city. Two interesting features that I have always noticed about this house were the brickwork on the Chimney and the slate roof. I am shock how few Victorian homes and building have survived in Windsor. I see street after street of Victorian homes in Cities like Chatham, London and Stratford. There seems to be a larger selection of Victorian homes in Kingvillle and Leamington.
What are the operating hours?
Art Gallery of Windsor information: http://www.artgalleryofwindsor.com/
The street car exhibit runs till Jan 3, 2010.
Hello folks, my neice sent me this info so I am responding to it. I dad is the owner of this building since the late 1960’s. This building was a rooming house when we purchased it. In 1972 my parents opened up the Himalaya Restaurant which was a family business. All the kids worked there after school, even me. I waited tables, served drinks, cooked, cleaned, and did maintence work on the building while going thru grade school, high school and later university.
When A & P closed down and relocated to the old Patterson School building (Food Basic store now on Goyeau and Elliott Street), Mother’s Pizza was opening up and they did sand blasting on the exterior. We wanted to do the same, but due to the age of the building, the mortar would be further loosened, thus damaging the bricks. So my younger brother and I painted the entire building by brush and roller in a watermellon pink adhesive paint that would seal the bricks and the mortar. We did all the trim work around the windows in white paint. Years later when this pink latex paint was cracking and further damage to the bricks would result, we had the stucco done to preserve the bricks and the mortar.
In early 1984, after graduating, I opened up a Chiropractic Office downstairs, in the basement of the Himalaya Restaurant. The entrance was from the front, and to avoid snow and ice build up on the stairs leading downstairs, we enlcosed the stair case with a porch. I still maintain an office here on a part time basis.
As for the restaurant, my dad served up excellent meals for over 36 years! We had customers from all over Canada, USA and the world! We use to do catering parties for many clients including rock stars, saints and gurus, and foreign digitaries which would come from a Common Wealth Organization. I remember waiting on Idi Amin, and other dignitaries where we would have to close the restaurant down to the general public, and have police guards outside, for their safety.
Due to my mother’s death in 1998, and my dad’s advanced glaucoma and his blindness, he still operated the restaurant on a limited basis when we kids could help out. On December 31st, 2008, the restaurant was permanently closed. The entire building, with apartments for rent upstairs, a fully furnished and equipped restaurant with a full liquor license, and a doctor’s office downstairs is for sale or lease. For more information contact my dad at (519) 969-4698.
I hope this sheds a little light on the past.
Sincerely,
Dr. Mahavir Oza
I have never eaten at a better place in my life, and I’ve eaten out at a lot of places. I’m fortunate to have eaten here, and I don’t know if anything can quite replace the experience. Fond, fond, memories. I can rave on and on about the Himalaya Dining Room experience with Chef OZA to walk into the Himalaya Dining Room is to be transported to India.
Dr. Oza, thanks for the update and info. However I wouldn’t say Idi Amin was a “dignitary”. 😉
My wife and I were eating dinner with our daughter when I remarked that best dining experience I ever had were the times with Chef Oza and his family. I first came there for dinner in 1973 at the suggestion of Tom Lebow and John VanZandt who worked with me at Lobby Hobby Camera in Detroit when I was seventeen years old. Chef Oza cooked dinner for me and my friends on my thirtieth birthday seventeen years later (there were twenty of us). When I met my wife in later years Chef Oza offered to come to our house in West Bloomfield and cook for us for a engagement party. I asked him how many I could invite and he told me needed only four burners to cook for 200 people. My friend Phil Dahke, a chemist at my place of work, told me that the Chef cooked for many well-to-do Indian families in Detroit and all I would need to do is pick him up in Windsor and take him shopping and he would do the rest. I was too shy at the time to ask him to do it. What an opportunity I missed!
Over the years I learn to appreciate who was the finest Chef of Indian Cuisine I ever experienced in America. The only place I had food even remotely comparable was London (UK). BTW…the brains of the family were Mrs. Oza. I’ve never experienced a sharper or more brilliant wit in my life. She could put you in your place with two or three words. I know why he loved her so much. I am taking my daughter to dance, and when I get a chance I will come back and write about Keeshor and Priya. I met the oldest son and his wife only once or twice. I hope they will read this and pass the message along to Mr. Oza.
I am in the ‘book’ in West Bloomfield. The last I heard Keeshor lived in Waterford?
I hope I remember to write about the cooking class we took with him. I miss Mr. Oza and wish him the best of health and happiness. He made me very happy too.
Correction….that was Prima….not Priya.
My wife, Helen (a great Malaysian-Indian chef herself), and I would strongly endorse every positive comment made here about chef Oza – – a great man! And I could go on to add a lot more about his warmth and kindness and friendliness. A toss-up, really, as to whether it was the food or chef Oza that contributed the most to the place, in addition of course to the unique charms of Mrs. Oza, “cheeky Prima”, and (early in my experience there) a lovely & charming daughter-in-law!
I’m very very sorry that relocation from the Detroit area made it impossible for us to maintain our “attendance” at the Himalaya during the later years of its life. Helen and I wish Mr. Oza the very best and would love to have him reminded of the many extremely fond memories we have of our evenings at the Himalaya.
Tim & Helen Coon
when i was in high school i went to king george on ottawa stree for 2 years and chef oza was the culinary teacher i just learned that he is blind he seemed like such a nice person soft spoken
When I visited Windsor in 1974 -I think- it was to meet my friend and classmate B.M.Oza. Oza had just started the restaurant and took me round the facility. He had good business but the children were very young.I had an invitation to join him and build up the restaurant.Alas I did not take up the offer. Oza is the best chef -Indian and European – I have known and I have been in the business for a long time ! He could cook any type of food Indian and Western. I have eaten his food in Bombay, London,Windsor and many other places always the finest. It is a pity that he is losing his eyesight. As a person he is an excellent human being. I have been trying to contact him for a long time as I had lost touch with him. Yes he has a GOSALA in Rajasthan – a measure of his phylosophy of love.
I can go on but for the present this should do.
I miss Chef Oza’s cooking so much! Does anyone know of a chef or restaurant that carries on with his recipes/ way of cooking? I know he taught classes and think he taught at the Hari Krishna ashram in Detroit. I would so love to have his Biryani, which was unlike any I have ever had. My husband and I, along with friends and family had many memorable meals at the Himalayas, leaving “intoxicated” from the food.
Most appreciatively,
A great fan of the Himalayas and of Chef Oza and his wonderful family.
My very first taste of Indian cooking came in 1981 at the Himalaya. Our close friends Jeff and Shelly were patrons and they took us there for a Wedding present.
I was hooked instantly.
Chef OZA came to our table and blessed our wedding and proceeded to provide us with the
4-hour feast.
We found out quickly that this wasn’t somewhere you went for a Bite-to-eat. This was a complete evening out every time.
We returned many, many times and even attended some of his Sunday cooking classes.
I recently was looking to find out if the restaurant was still open and I happened on this page. I also happened on a very interesting web site: http://chefoza.com/
YES, If you are truly interested you can get all of Chef OZA’s recipes. I did. Check it out.
My future husband took me to a “Thai” restaurant in Windsor for our first date. It turned out to be the Himalaya, my favorite restaurant!! We have fond memories of our evening there, the start of our relationship.
08-04-2014
My niece sent me the link to this site on January 11th, 2010 when I last wrote an update about this building and my family. Once again this link was sent to me and I would like to update the information.
I would like to thank everyone for their kind comments about my family and the restaurant. When I last wrote an update, I shared with my dad all the wonderful comments people had made about him and the Himalaya Restaurant. He was elated about the impact he had on the community.
Sadly, my dad passed away on November 30th, 2013. And if anyone is interested, his cook book and Ayurvedic healing books are available at the following site: http://chefoza.com. This site is managed by one of dad’s cooking class students, who had also travelled to India and spent time at my father’s animal mission (gau shala)(cow farm).
Dr. Mahavir Oza D.C.
Thank yo Dr. Oza, I will check the site out and purchase the cook book.