By the late 1930s everyone in Vancouver recognized Nat. Wearing his trademark bow-tie he’d trade shop talk with his suppliers or drop in at the local garage for gas and gossip. Checking on sales at White Spot #1, Nat would stroll by the parked cars and share a word or two with his guests. And what they told him he paid attention to: they were tired of the Depression; they wanted to dress up and get away from it all. But, with the exception of the fancy dining room at the Hotel Vancouver, there was no place to go.

The man with the bow-tie nodded his appreciation and went away to set the wheels in motion for a new White Spot concept which would combine three restaurant styles on the same site at Granville and 67th.

Nat and Eva personally greeted guests by name at the door. On many a night, a celebrity or two would dine there, an anniversary party would be in full swing, or a young couple would shyly enjoy their first date.

‘Let’s go to the White Spot,’ you used to say if you wanted to impress somebody.”

One busy Sunday, over the radio came the sobering news: Canada had entered World War II. “It was a very solemn atmosphere.” Like his employees, Nat Bailey was now unsure of the future. But he was certain of the present and of the people who had helped him to make it a successful one. He promised his employees who enlisted that their jobs would be there for them when they returned, and many of them—women and men, staff and management—went off to the war.

During the war, girl hops replaced enlisted men at the Drive-in, while serving staff peeled and chipped their own potatoes. The requirement that no meat was to be served on Tuesdays and Fridays led a refinement of the White Spot menu. Chicken, cheese and fish dishes appeared.

With the end of the war came a resurgence of confidence all across the land. By now well established on his original site in south Vancouver, Nat too yearned for new opportunities. In 1945 Nat established Newton Farms in Surrey, B.C. to cultivate the high quality and vast quantity of chicken and fresh produce that White Spot needed. Then in 1946 he built a small replica of the Barbecue on the southeast corner, eventually it was moved to Kingsway and Gladstone Street where an addition was later built and operated by Roy Parkinson, one of Nat’s future partners.