When coffee and doughnuts came to Kawartha Lakes
Just in Time local history series
The cool autumn air settles across Lindsay, and colourful leaves descend upon Victoria Park as a group of gentlemen – all longtime residents – congregate at Tim Hortons, across the street. They are regulars here, and over hot coffee and glazed doughnuts they compare notes about people and politics. Similar scenes are undoubtedly repeated in Bobcaygeon, Fenelon Falls, and indeed across the country.
Tim Hortons, which this year marked its 60th anniversary, has become such a ubiquitous part of the Canadian cultural landscape that it’s hard to imagine our downtowns and highway intersections without it. Although it has only had a presence in Kawartha Lakes for some 40 years, that cherished Canadian culinary combination of coffee and doughnuts has a much longer history.
In his book More Surprising & Intriguing Things About Old Victoria County, the late historian Dr. Rae Fleming noted that coffee houses trace their origins back to at least 17th century Germany. “These days, thanks to the big chains, and to more and more owner-operated spots, coffee houses abound,” he wrote. For Fleming, as well as countless others, lively discussion around the table in the coffee shop was and is as much of an attraction as the caffeinated beverage itself.
Long before Tim Hortons and various independently-run establishments began dotting the streetscape, coffee and doughnuts were much-anticipated fixtures at meetings that took place in churches, halls, and other venues. After wrapping up its meeting on Sept. 24, 1934, members of the Young People’s Society of Queen Street United Church adjourned to the church basement “…where games were played and doughnuts and coffee served.” The same combination was on the menu five months later, at a Conservative Association meeting in Norland. And on Feb. 11, 1948, the Thursday Post’s reportage of a curling bonspiel in Lindsay noted that “our own ladies were up bright and early to serve (the players) coffee and doughnuts before beginning their games.”
The sweet, ring-shaped pastry had become a lucrative enough staple in local circles by 1954, when Walter Stewart launched Walt’s Donuts. He had learned the doughnut-making trade from an uncle in Collingwood starting in 1949, and within a year had obtained a special permit to drive a truck for making deliveries into Orillia. Stewart soon decided to deliver his uncle’s products into Lindsay. By 1953, Stewart had his own delivery van and was overseeing a branch of his uncle’s doughnut business in the latter community. This operation was later sold to Neil Wilson, but the doughnut-making equipment would eventually be reacquired by Stewart for his burgeoning firm. By the late 1950s, Walt’s Donuts had a fleet of five trucks and about 10 employees.
Though they never had a sit-down, eat-in location, Walter and Barbara Stewart’s products were enjoyed – no doubt with a cup of coffee – by patrons of restaurants, campgrounds, and resorts across the Kawarthas and beyond. “His territory included Lindsay, Fenelon Falls, Bobcaygeon and as far as Haliburton, Bowmanville and Wasaga Beach,” recalls Walter’s son, Mark Stewart. The business supplied locals with its famous “honi-dipt donuts” through 1963, when it was sold to Arnott Clarke.
The coffee and doughnut shop was becoming a familiar sight in urban Ontario by the 1960s and into the 1970s, when Ernie Griffioen’s father decided to enter the field. A Dutch immigrant, Simon Griffioen had trained as a baker and spent summers in Kawartha Lakes. In 1977, father and son opened up Donut Villa, on Highway 35 South. “We wanted to catch the traffic coming through Lindsay to Fenelon Falls and Bobcaygeon,” Ernie says. By the time it closed in 2002, Donut Villa’s offerings had expanded beyond coffee shop fare to include both breakfast and lunch.
The local coffee and doughnut scene was forever transformed when the first Tim Hortons franchise in Kawartha Lakes opened up on May 25, 1985, at the southwest corner of Kent Street and Victoria Avenue in Lindsay. Paul Berwick – a former banker who had learned to bake as a child – brought the iconic chain to town after working at its Cobourg location. At the time, communities had to have a population of 15,000 to justify a franchise, so Berwick relied on distribution lists from local newspapers to convince decision-makers that a Lindsay location would be well worth the expense.
“When we opened the store, customers were lined up around the store twice,” Berwick remembers. “I was baking, I had a doughnut baker, muffin bakers, staff out front, and it was just crazy. The district manager walked out with a tray of honey-dip Timbits, and said ‘Okay folks, one per customer!’
Customers taking their place on the iconic red bar stools in front of the long counter ranged from construction workers to physicians and lawyers. “It was so diverse,” says Kathy Berwick of the crowd. She worked as a ‘doughnut dolly’ starting in 1990, and remembers that Boston Cream doughnuts were very popular, as were apple fritters. Similar products were also enjoyed up the street at Donut World, which attracted young people with its pool table and a coin-operated jukebox. They gathered here to enjoy coffee, doughnuts, and bagels over cigarettes and lively conversation.
Much has changed over the years, and businesses come and go – but the coffee and doughnut pairing remains firmly entrenched in the Canadian consciousness.