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The Atlas Obscura Podcast

Canada Obscura: The Giant Orange Sphere

The Atlas Obscura Podcast

SiriusXM Podcasts & Atlas Obscura

Society & Culture, Places & Travel

4.61.6K Ratings

🗓️ 29 May 2024

⏱️ 24 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

CANADALAND host Jesse Brown introduces Dylan to a strange and decaying Quebecois fast food institution… housed inside a giant orange sphere. Today, the orange is a relic of a bygone era. But decades ago, this odd establishment was on track to become the McDonalds of Canada. We hear about the rise and fall of Montreal’s Orange Julep, and how its eccentric founder envisioned a Canada scattered with glowing orange spheres. This week, we’re celebrating Canada’s strange, incredible, and wondrous places. This is the third story in our collaboration with CANADALAND. If you want to hear more stories from their great show, we recommend starting here: Crimes Against Nature The True Story of Sasquatch This episode was produced by Kevin Sexton.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Hello, we have been in Canada all week and it has been just a total blast. If you like what you've been hearing, go subscribe to the Canada Land podcast. You will hear about Canada's crime families, about an Egyptian

0:16.0

content mill that creates YouTube videos trashing Justin Trudeau. You'll hear

0:21.0

about the true origins of the Sasquatch. All of that is on

0:26.2

Canada land. Today is our final installment of our Canada week and it is a really good one.

0:33.0

Yesterday we were on Sable Island off the coast of Nova Scotia

0:37.0

and today we're headed back to the mainland to what is perhaps my personal favorite Canadian province, Quebec, we're going to Montreal, one of the most magical

0:48.4

cities I have ever been to. Canada Land Host Jesse Brown is bringing us today's story. Here we go.

0:56.0

All right, Jesse, what is today's story?

1:01.0

Today I'm going to tell you about a giant orange ball. I am not talking about some

1:06.9

roadside attraction on a country highway. This is the largest orange sphere in the

1:11.9

world and it has been sitting on the side of an expressway in downtown Montreal

1:19.3

for over half a century. It's become a beloved institution. I think I know what you are talking about. a You're correct. It is a restaurant called Gibbo- Orange-Julup, and they serve a very specific style of regional fast food.

1:37.6

It really only exists in Quebec. If you are looking for something to eat in Montreal, I mean it's an amazing city for food.

1:45.0

There's a lot of high-end dining, but there's a very good chance that a local will instead point you here to the orange

1:52.2

julip, and at first you might hear to the orange julip and at first you might think why you know because

1:56.7

you drive down the expressway and you find yourself in this like kind of depressing

2:01.0

area full of office buildings

2:03.8

between a car dealership and a gas station,

2:07.0

there it is, this massive orange,

2:11.2

surrounded by this huge parking lot, where girls on roller skates used to zoom up to your car,

2:16.2

take your order to roll back to the orange to get your food. They are long gone. There are still

2:21.8

picnic tables out there in the summertime, but like in the

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