Nat Bailey

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title: "Nat Bailey" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1902-births", "1978-deaths", "american-emigrants-to-canada", "baseball-people-from-british-columbia", "businesspeople-from-vancouver", "canadian-baseball-hall-of-fame-inductees", "canadian-restaurateurs", "businesspeople-from-saint-paul,-minnesota", "20th-century-american-businesspeople"] description: "American-born Canadian restaurateur" topic_path: "technology/web" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nat_Bailey" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary American-born Canadian restaurateur ::

::data[format=table title="infobox person"]

Field	Value
birth_date
image	Nat bailey cropped vpl collection.jpg
caption	Bailey in 1961
birth_place	Saint Paul, Minnesota, U.S.
death_date
death_place	Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
occupation	Restaurateur
known_for	Founder of White Spot
embed	yes
hofcolor	#EC1C40
hoflink	Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame
hoftype	Canadian
hofdate	2013
::

|birth_date = |image = Nat bailey cropped vpl collection.jpg |caption = Bailey in 1961 |birth_place = Saint Paul, Minnesota, U.S. |death_date = |death_place = Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada |occupation = Restaurateur |known_for = Founder of White Spot |module= | embed=yes | hofcolor= #EC1C40 | hoflink= Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame | hoftype= Canadian | hofdate= 2013 Nathaniel Ryal Bailey (January 31, 1902 – March 27, 1978), better known as Nat Bailey, was an American-born Canadian restaurateur, and the founder of White Spot restaurants. He is known for building the first drive-in restaurant in Canada, in 1928, and developing the first carhop tray. His chain of restaurants continues to thrive today.

Biography

Born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, in 1902, Bailey moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1913. In the 1920s, he operated a traveling lunch counter in Vancouver, operating out of a 1918 Model T. He sold hotdogs for a dime and ice cream for a nickel. In 1928, Bailey founded the first White Spot restaurant. By 1955, the chain was serving 10,000 cars a day and 110,000 customers a week. The chain was sold to General Foods in 1968 when Bailey retired.

Bailey was a Freemason, and supporter of the Marpole Rotary Club, as well as the Chamber of Commerce. He was also a supporter of little league baseball in the city of Vancouver and was a part owner of the Vancouver Mounties minor-league team.

Bailey died in 1978 at Vancouver General Hospital at age 76.

Bailey's love of baseball was commemorated with the renaming of Capilano Stadium to Nat Bailey Stadium after his death. The stadium has been the home of the Vancouver Canadians, an affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays, since 2011. Bailey was inducted to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in 2013; he is also an inductee of the Vancouver Baseball Hall of Fame and the British Columbia Sports Hall of Fame.

References

References

1. Mia Stainsby. (June 7, 2013). "Landmark restaurant chain White Spot celebrates 85th birthday". [[Vancouver Sun]].
2. Brown, Janet. (March 24, 2020). "White Spot restaurant chain lays off 3,000 workers due to coronavirus". [[Global News]].
3. (March 28, 1978). "Hamburger king Bailey's peanuts-to-riches life ends at 76". [[Vancouver Sun]].
4. "Nat Bailey".

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::