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If these walls could talk: Charlottetown restaurant reveals secret notes

Diners at The Gahan House in Charlottetown may have noticed there's a little more behind the restaurant's brick walls than meets the eye.

'People just like to leave their mark somewhere'

Meghan MacPhail, assistant manager at The Gahan House, says there are about 150 notes left in the walls of the restaurant, written by customers since its opening in 2001. (Nicole Williams/CBC)

Diners at The Gahan House in Charlottetown may have noticed there's a little more behind the restaurant's brick walls than meets the eye.

"I believe it all started with tourists, taking the little napkin bands [from cutlery] and writing little notes and finding little creases in the walls to store them, because they're all over," said MeghanMacPhail,assistant general manager at The Gahan House.

MacPhailhas only been with the restaurant for three years but said other staff have noticed notes being left behind in the walls since opening in 2001.

"You get stuff from all over the world, leaving notes about honeymoons, getting married, family vacations. It's a really great thing to see," she said.

MacPhail says most of the notes share words of wisdom or commemorate a special day for the writers. (Nicole Williams/CBC)

While there's been no official count, MacPhail said there are around 150 notes placed in the walls of the restaurant.

"Just special moments in their lives that they got to document and leave here for us. It's a good treat," said MacPhail.

'A little bit of history of someone else's stay here'

"We just touch them to read them and then we put them back," she said. "It's a nice guest experience for people to come in, sit down and get a little bit of history of someone else's stay here."

Staff say they don't throw out any of the notes left in the walls. 'Sometimes they get misplaced or sometimes they get on the ground and they'll get swept up,' said MacPhail. '[But] we just touch them to read them and then we put them back.' (Nicole Williams/CBC)

Stephanie Wade, a server at the restaurant, said customers will notice the notes, and will be inspired to write their own.

"I had this couple the other day they were taking a knife and fork, trying to get this one note out all night," said Wade.

"They pulled it out and it said 'how long did it take you to get this note out' so they wrote back on it '25 minutes with a knife and a fork.'"