From the Windsor Star, September 25, 1979. Located at 7605 Tecumseh Road East, in the Pickwick Plaza. A look at the plaza today shows the Wendy’s as being at that address in Pickwick Plaza, just east of Lauzon Parkway. The restaurant couldn’t have been around very long. Does anyone remember the place? I grew up in the Walkerville area, and didn’t spend much time on the east side, I think it may have been gone by the time I came to Windsor in 1989…
- Windsor‘s first pancake house is open for business.
And the already busy Smitty‘s, at 7605 Tecumseh Rd. E. – in the Pickwick Place shopping plaza – plans to stay a long time.
Maria Maziak, one of the owners of the business, is a warm and enthusiastic promoter for it.
“Starting a place like this has long been a dream of mine,” she said, “but it`s been busy setting it up, getting staff, training them and opening the restaurant. “
As any restaurant patron knows, staff can make a place –or break it.
“Our waitresses are attractively uniformed.” Maria said.
“We want them to be proud to be waitresses.
“When they were interviewed for the job, I told them that if they weren’t proud of being waitresses here, to leave then.
“l think pride is very important to staff,” she added. “We co-operate with our staff and want a good relationship to continue.”
Her partner, Lew Jones, also stressed choice of staff and training.
‘We’ve been very selective.” he said. I’m sure it will pay off by helping the restaurant develop and keep the business it should.”
Smitty’s is a member of a Canadian chain with headquarters in Calgary. Through the head office, it receives certain supplies, recipes for pancakes and standards for quality control, but the business itself is owned by Maria and Lew.
Pancakes occupy the star place on the colorful menus For (sic) statisticians – and for Windsor pancake-lovers – the menu offers I5 varieties, of which buttermilk, potato, banana and southern pecan are just four.
The menu also boasts a selection of waffles – 10 different types are listed – as well as eggs and omelettes, sandwiches, steaks, cutlets and other dinners.
“The restaurant will be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.” Maria said.
“We expect this to be a high volume outlet as we get better known and business develops.” Lew added.
The restaurant has a seating capacity of 138 and a staff of about 55 to meet its customers’ demands.
But it won’t be Windsor’s only pancake house for long. A competitor, the International House of Pancakes, is now building a restaurant in on Tecumseh Road just east of Lauzon Road.
“That’s beautiful,” said Maria. “ln business, you must have competition.
“But l don’t think they’ll be a match for us.” she challenged.
**As a side note, there have been errors in spelling via my OCR scanner lately, but in the article above, there were several quotes that were never closed. That poor grammar, is not an error and is courtesy of the 1979 Windsor Star. 🙂
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I remember Smitty’s (don’t think I ever ate there though) – my guess is that it was around until the mid to late 80s. Didn’t know Windsor ever had an IHOP though!
then again…could the IHOP have been that triangular building that hosted a string of short-lived restaurants before finally becoming Enterprise Rent-a-car?
yes i remember that place!! heeeeee they got rid of it and built wendys there now lol i went there for pancakes……….sooooo good !! yes back in the 80’s for sure lol
Smitty’s was there for 10 years max. Ate there a few times, it was a typical family restaurant.
Yes the IHOP was where Enterprise Rent a Car is now. It didn’t last very long either. There have been various restaurants in that location. Bubby’s, Rumors Steakhouse, an Italian place. None of these lasted very long.
We came home from a family vacation, having eaten at a Smitty’s somewhere for the first time, to find the new one in Windsor. We ate there on a weekend morning from time to time but I always liked IHOP better once it opened. It was awhile before I realized Smitty’s had gone since our patterns had changed by then and we’d moved west.
There’s a Smitty’s in Chatham now but I don’t like it much. The food is low end ordinary and the service is bad. The only time we go is when the club we belong to holds meetings in their “banquet” room and even the club has begun venturing elsewhere. The restaurant seems to focus (read rely) on seniors in for early dinner on the cheap. They have a weekend brunch but I wasn’t impressed the one time we tried it. There are pancakes on the menu still but it doesn’t seem at all like a “pancake house”.
On the topic of short lived restaurants (aqnd breakfast), anyone recall Granny Smith’s on Ouellette, just north of Wyandotte on the west side? I liked it and their cheese bread, available from the bakery side, was to die for. It eventually succumbed to one of the many suspicious Windsor fires and had been languishing long before since location was against it, I suppose.
Even further back in time was Biff’s, a NY style place on the ground floor of the old Viscount and later another location downtown on Ouellette that outlived the first. I had steak and eggs for breakfast for the first time at the original location, coming off midnights at Hotel Dieu, and that’s still my favourite breakfast out treat.
I wonder if IHOP still exists in the States? We’re going west through the states in a week or so and I could really get into a plate of their cheese blintzes!
near the end smitty’s had the best broasted chicken,little more money than kfc but well worth it. The old IHOP was at little river and north side of tecumseh rd..That location made it hard to enter the parking lot due to traffic flow on tecumseh,almost impossible to make a left turn eastbound on tec..i always thought thats why no resturant ever had any success there and alot have tried. I went there alot when it was called brunchners..bottomless cup of coffee for 50 cents and was open 24hrs like smitty’s was.
Clare – IHOP is still around in the US. If you are really in the mood, there’s one on East Jefferson just outside of downtown Detroit. As well as many locations in the Metro Detroit area.
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Yes, the building currently occupied by Enterprise car rentals started life as an IHOP. Several restaurants have come and gone in that building. Last time I was in there was 10+ years ago when it was a Top Hat. As others have said it’s a bad location for traffic egress and I’m sure it’s even worse now with all the car dealerships in the area.
I remember the Smitty’s at Pickwick but I can’t say that I ever went there.
recall the smitys but don’t think i ever ate there but! remember the IHOP near little river if younwent there either to eat or just have a coffee they would leave a pot on your table
Clare i remember granny smiths on ouellette i used to go there religiouly with my girlfriend a bowl of soup and one of their sandwichs on that thick bread they baked now that was a meal i was really sad when it burned in that fire
There is a Smitty’s in Sarnia as well (Point Edward, actually) – in the Best Western on Venetian Blvd near the Blue Water Bridge.
http://www.smittys.ca
I lived in the apartments behind there. Went a number of times with my grand-dad. It’s ‘The Captain’s Trading/Furniture store now.
I remember hanging around there back in the early 90’s. I think it closed for good around 1991 or 92.
I had been there as a kid at my sisters wedding reception (just a small affair. Sometime around 1985? The building did close around 1991/92 but the name had changed by that time.
I loved Smitty’s. I think they may still have this chain in the US? Thanks for the pic!
The restaurant was still there in the summer of 1992, I remember eating there and we had moved to Windsor that summer. I think it must have been torn down in ’93 at the earliest. I was sad to see it go!
I remember got to Smitty’s often when i was younger with my Dad, they had good food and i think a friend of the family was a waitress there. I miss the place.
I cooked at Smitty’s on Tecumseh Rd East AND at Smitty’s on the River in the late 80’s (1987-89)for Lou and Maria. The broasted chicken was the best (Cramdons sells it now and I tried theirs and it is as good as I remember from back then) I want to say that it was closed in late 92 because Maria was very ill and they moved away and no one bought it as Smitty’s and the landowner then leased it out to Wendy’s (I could be wrong but I know Maria was ill and passed away a while after).
@JP
My name is Amber and I am Maria & Lew’s granddaughter. I practically grew up at Smitty’s and have such fond memories. It is so wonderful to hear everyone’s fond memories and positive feedback.
It is true that my grandparents sold the restaurants because my Grandmother was very sick. They moved to Palm Springs, Ca to retire early. She went on to have a courageous battle with cancer for several years, but passed in 2000. I miss her so very much, she was my glamorous, fabulous, strong, determined real life Marilyn Monroe. My Grandfather recently passed in July 2008. He was an amazing man. He was a father & mentor to me, just two truly wonderful souls.
JP, I wonder if you remember me- the only granddaughter at the time…head full of curls 🙂 My mom was Jamie- Aunts were Kim, Kelly, Lisa.
@ JP: You also may remember Lisa’s kids (my cousins) Kristyn & Matthew (little blondies)
Pancakes? For dinner?
I remember going there when I was about eight years old in the late 70s. Loved that place.
Pat, it’s not the Captain’s Furniture store now, that building is much newer, less than 15 years old. In fact, one night in 2001 or 2002, the east wall of the Captain’s building was under construction and only the east, and partial south walls stood for what seemed like weeks. One day the wall collapsed into the Wendy’s drive through. It damaged the Wendy’s building, and nearly killed a lady in her car in the drive-thru. Before that, the site was a Gas Station and Car Wash (Shell, I think).
I remember Smitty’s, but I don’t think I ever ate there. I don’t remember it being a pancake place, but I was pretty young. Wasn’t there a Smitty character on the sign, that looked a little like Yosemite Sam? They knocked down Smitty’s and built a brand new Wendy’s. This must have been around ’94-’95. I worked at the Wendy’s starting in late ’97 and they had recently had their one year anniversary, during the summer.
Yes, the site of the Captain’s furniture store was a Shell gas station and car wash, and prior to that I believe it was a Beaver gas station and car wash. Where the Pizza Hut is used to be a Mr. Sub. I understand that before that it was a Red Barn restaurant but that was before my time because I only remember it as a Mr. Sub.
And across the street was a Consumers Distributing and a Valenite-Modco(?) tool and die shop.
I remember the Consumers Distributing, but that’s not where Valenite was.
My Dad worked at Valenite-Modco (later, Valenite GTE, Valenite-Cincinnati Millicron, etc.) But Valenite was on Tranby just west of Matthew Brady. They had the office and shop there. They eventually closed the shop, then years later downsized and moved the office to Rhodes drive. The office is now the large linen closet in my parent’s upstairs (not kidding). Changed the name completely, to Walter Tools (German Company bought them). I’ll ask him if they were ever right on Tecumseh Rd, but I know the old facility was on Tranby.
I got it from the source. my dad started at Valenite-Modco Ltd.’s office on Tecumseh Rd, next to Consumer’s Distributing. I guess it was just and office, though. Not a shop. Then they moved to Tranby.
Okay. I remember it being a big enough facility to have a shop floor. Maybe it did at one time.
Maybe, but he said he started there and it was just an office. I think that was ’81 from what I remember, I didn’t ask. But there was a plant around the corner on Lauzon, and Modco had a plant further down, before they consolidated everything on Tranby. Valenite owned that whole industrial area near their last plant on Tranby. They had a lot going on in the area back then. It’s all gone now.
for some reason, I remember Smitty’s as being located on the south east corner of Tec. Rd. and Lauzon Rd., about in the space between Burger king and BMO….was I dreaming or was it ever located there for a period of time??
Could be, Jay. Smitty’s has poked its head up in a few locations in the city over recent decades, including a west end location.
The Valenite office on Tecumseh Road was a sales office, I worked at the Tranby Road plant from 1977-2000. On Tranby there was the offices and the shipping/receiving dept. Further down the road on Tranby was Plant 2 Modco, Plant 3 (sintering) was on Matthew Brady and Plant 4 the grind shop was on E C Row. If I recall around the early 1990’s they expanded the Tranby road plants to consolidate the grind shop and the sales office, apart from the Modco plant down the road everything was now under one roof.