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…
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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@ 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.