Wilf and Rosel Vogt, owners of Rosel’s restaurant, once got a call from a man in Houston who had an unusual request.
He said an old friend was coming to PG and he wanted to know if they would open the restaurant two hours early so they could have a meal on their own without getting bothered. The man did not say who his guest was.
It was Nov. 4, 1989. Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones, on their Steel Wheels North American tour, had just played two sold-out shows at BC Place Stadium in Vancouver.
The Vogts, who lived on the upper floor of the restaurant on Vancouver Street, agreed to open early so the two customers could dine in the privacy of Rosel’s sunroom.
“I opened up especially for him, not knowing who was coming; somebody said a friend was coming and that’s the only time we could get together, so I said, well we’re here anyways, why not,” said Rosel.
“This fellow came in and he was very nervous, looking out the window until a taxi arrived and this ugly guy comes out of there. He was ugly as sin, mouth from ear to ear, and he was grinning at me and looking at me as if I should recognize him.
“They were both very nice,” she said. “They were friends who had a lot to talk to each other and I just served them. He was pleasant enough to talk to and I think he had a few compliments but he kept looking at me and grinning, and I’m thinking, ‘You’re weird, man.’”
Rosel, now 90, can’t recall what they ordered off the menu, but they each had a few drinks during their two-hour dinner (which ended just after 5 p.m.). As Jagger was getting up to leave, he asked if he could walk around the restaurant. By that time it was open for business and other guests were sitting at their tables — and he walked up to them and spoke to some of them.
Jagger, a rock ’n’ roll legend and one of the most famous people on Earth, seemed quite surprised when nobody seemed to know who he was. If they did, they left them alone — certainly one of the rare times that ever happened to him when he was out in public.
“He had a few words with one or the other and nobody recognized him and I think he was rather pleased,” said Rosel. “I think he was relieved he could enjoy a nice quiet meal with his friend without interruptions.
“When he left we were really busy and he spent a long time at the guestbook. I think he wanted us to know who he was. That’s how we found out.
“In the evening we turned on the TV for the midnight news and lo and behold, there was ugly face being interviewed and I said, ‘Oh my God, that’s the guy from downstairs,’ and we got the guestbook and saw that’s who it was.”
Rosel and Wilf's daughter Tina (Best) was in Prince George at the time but was not working at the restaurant. She says the guests who were there at the same time as Jagger likely knew who he was but didn't want to draw attention to him.
“A lot of the people that went to Rosel’s were those who had money and they wanted to be discreet, and they didn’t want publicity, so they would have left him alone,” Best said. “Rosel’s was known for discretion and they often had politicians and other well-known people come to their restaurant.”
Best donated the guestbook to The Exploration Place museum in June. In it is Jagger's signature, printed using an extra downward stroke on the letter ‘M,’ which matches the way he forms that letter when he signs his autograph.
He listed his address as 25 Whitmore, London — the street he lived on in the Marylebone area of London in the late ’60s when he was with Marianne Faithfull. The penthouse apartment of the large and luxurious building where they lived was listed for sale this past April for £5.5 million.
Jagger and his friend left the restaurant and drove right to the airport, where a private plane was waiting for Jagger. The Stones played a concert that night (Nov. 4) in Oakland, Calif., which would have made it a tight timeframe to cover that distance (1,791 kilometres) in time for the show.
News of Jagger’s visit leaked out to the rest of the city and young Stones fans flocked to Rosel’s the following day, hoping he might still be there or that he’d left something behind to prove he was there.
Unlike the time CBS News legend Walter Cronkite visited Rosel’s and posed with the owners, no photos were taken of Jagger that day.
Rosel doesn’t know who Jagger’s friend was because he didn’t sign the register.
Rosel’s opened in the early 1990s and was known as one of the best restaurants in town until it closed permanently on Oct. 18, 1997, after Wilf developed cancer. The building was sold and now serves as a doctors’ office. Rosel and Wilf moved to Sullivan Crescent and operated a bed and breakfast there for several years, until the work of operating the business grew too much for them. Wilf died this year on June 22 at age 94.
“We got very, very rich,” said Rosel, “rich on friends.”
