Webers

Last updated
Webers
Webers hamburger (cropped).jpg
Webers on Highway 11
Webers
Restaurant information
EstablishedJuly 11, 1963;61 years ago (1963-07-11)
Owner(s)Tom Rennie
Street address8844 11 Hwy S
City15 Kilometres north of Orillia, Ontario
Postal/ZIP CodeL3V 6H3
Country Canada
Coordinates 44°41′38″N79°23′56″W / 44.6940°N 79.39884°W / 44.6940; -79.39884
Website www.webers.com

Webers (also known as Webers Hamburgers) is a hamburger restaurant on Ontario Highway 11, located 15 kilometres north of Orillia, Ontario that opened in July 1963. Webers grills their burgers over charcoal, with a grill man said to be able to flip up to 800 patties an hour. Long line ups are a common sight at the restaurant, which made the restaurant build a footbridge over the highway to provide access for guests from the southbound side. The restaurant's hamburger patties are also sold at Loblaws outlets. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]

Contents

As of 2009, Webers is reported to sell approximately 8,000 hamburgers on a typically busy Friday. The restaurant is open weekends from Thanksgiving until Christmas, but closed from January to March break. [5]

History

Webers was opened on July 11, 1963, by Paul Weber Sr., to cater to cottage goers. By the 1970s, it became so popular that patrons on the opposite side of the highway would often risk injury running across the street to the restaurant. In 1981, the province built a traffic barrier along the median of the highway in an effort to stop the jaywalking. Even so, travellers heading toward Toronto climbed over the waist-high wall to get their food. The following year, the province took further precaution by erecting a fence on top of the barrier. In 1983, Paul Weber Jr., the founder's son, bought a footbridge from a Toronto lawyer that was being used as part of the CN Tower's SkyWalk over Front Street to provide safe access to southbound travelers. This bridge has the distinction of being the first and only privately owned bridge spanning a public highway in Ontario. In 1987, Webers installed three CN train cars, retrofitted to house their own meat processing facility. They have since added five train cars, one of which is used as an eatery. The founder's sons eventually took over the business before their father's death in 1994. Webers opened up additional restaurants in Barrie in the late 1980s; one in Orillia, off the highway, in 1995; and two outlets in Toronto Pearson International Airport in the late 1990s. These restaurants have since closed, leaving only the original location on Highway 11. In 2005, Webers began selling frozen hamburgers through Loblaws. [5] [4] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]

Paul Weber Jr. sold the company in 2004 to Guelph businessman Tom Rennie, to spend more time with his family. This gave Rennie rights to the Webers name, and control of the Highway 11 flagship location as well as the outlets at Pearson. John Weber, the founder's other son, retained control of the locations in Orillia and Barrie. Since the additional restaurants closed their doors, Rennie became the sole owner of Webers. [7]

On July 19, 2018, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau visited Webers after visiting the Tim Horton Memorial Camp. [11]

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Webers has remained open to customers daily since May 3[ when? ] with social distancing measures. [12] Webers also started accepting debit cards for the first time in its history, having previously been a cash-only establishment. [12]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hamburger</span> Culinary dish consisting of a beef patty between rounded buns

A hamburger, or simply a burger, is a dish consisting of fillings—usually a patty of ground meat, typically beef—placed inside a sliced bun or bread roll. The patties are often served with cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, bacon, or chilis with condiments such as ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, relish or a "special sauce", often a variation of Thousand Island dressing, and are frequently placed on sesame seed buns. A hamburger patty topped with cheese is called a cheeseburger. Under some definitions, and in some cultures, a burger is considered a sandwich.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tim Hortons</span> Multinational coffeehouse and restaurant chain

Tim Hortons Inc., known colloquially as Tim's, Timmies, or Timmy's, is a Canadian multinational coffeehouse and restaurant chain with headquarters in Toronto; it serves coffee, donuts, sandwiches, breakfast egg muffins and other fast-food items. It is Canada's largest quick-service restaurant chain, with 5,701 restaurants in 13 countries, as of September 2023.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Orillia</span> City in Ontario, Canada

Orillia is a city in Ontario, Canada, about 30 km north-east of Barrie in Simcoe County. It is located at the confluence of Lake Couchiching and Lake Simcoe. Although it is geographically located within Simcoe County, the city is a single-tier municipality. It is part of the Huronia region of Central Ontario. The population in 2021 was 33,411.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Simcoe County</span> County in Ontario, Canada

Simcoe County is a county located in the central region of Ontario, Canada. The county is located north of the Greater Toronto Area, and forms the north western edge of the Golden Horseshoe. The largest city in the county is Barrie, while the county seat is located in Midhurst.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patty melt</span> Type of burger

A patty melt is an American grilled hamburger consisting of a ground beef patty topped with melted cheese and caramelized onions between two slices of griddled seeded-rye bread.

King's Highway 400, commonly referred to as Highway 400, historically as the Toronto–Barrie Highway, and colloquially as the 400, is a 400-series highway in the Canadian province of Ontario linking the city of Toronto in the urban and agricultural south of the province with the scenic and sparsely populated central and northern regions. The portion of the highway between Toronto and Lake Simcoe roughly traces the route of the Toronto Carrying-Place Trail, a historic trail between the Lower and Upper Great Lakes. North of Highway 12, in combination with Highway 69, it forms a branch of the Trans-Canada Highway (TCH), the Georgian Bay Route, and is part of the highest-capacity route from southern Ontario to the Canadian West, via a connection with the mainline of the TCH in Sudbury. The highway also serves as the primary route from Toronto to southern Georgian Bay and Muskoka, areas collectively known as cottage country. The highway is patrolled by the Ontario Provincial Police and has a speed limit of 100 km/h (62 mph), except for the section south of Highway 401, where the speed limit is 80 km/h (50 mph) and the 60 km (37 mi) stretch between MacTier and Nobel, where the speed limit was raised to 110 km/h (68 mph) on April 22, 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harvey's</span> Canadian fast food hamburger restaurant chain

Harvey's is a fast food restaurant chain operating in Canada, with locations in every province except British Columbia. It serves hamburgers, poutine, hot dogs, french fries, onion rings, and other traditional Canadian fast-food fare. The chain is owned by Recipe Unlimited.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Five Guys</span> American fast food chain

Five Guys Enterprises, LLC is an American fast food chain focused on hamburgers, hot dogs, and french fries. It is headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zehrs Markets</span> Southern Ontario subsidiary of the Loblaw Companies

Zehrmart Inc. is a Canadian supermarket chain in southern Ontario. The chain has 42 locations and is a part of Loblaw Companies Limited, which purchased the Zehrs chain in the mid-1970s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lick's Homeburgers</span> Canadian restaurant chain

Lick's Homeburgers & Ice Cream was a Canadian restaurant chain, owned by Lick's Concepts, Inc., a private company. The first Lick's opened in 1980, operated by Denise Meehan, who then turned the concept into a franchise in 1984. At its height in 2012, the chain had 30 locations, all in Ontario. Only one restaurant, in Parry Sound, continues to use the name Lick's. The company continues to sell frozen food.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jack's</span> American fast-food restaurant chain

Jack's Family Restaurants, LP is an American fast food restaurant chain, headquartered and based in Birmingham. Restaurants feature sit-down dining, drive-thrus and takeout service. The menu features primarily burgers, fried chicken, breakfast and various other fast food items including french fries and soft drinks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">A&W (Canada)</span> Canadian fast food restaurant chain

A&W is a fast-food restaurant chain in Canada, franchised by A&W Food Services of Canada, Inc.

McDonald's Corporation is the world's largest chain of fast food restaurants, serving around 68 million customers daily in 119 countries. McDonald's traces its origins to a 1940 restaurant in San Bernardino, California, United States. After expanding within the United States, McDonald's became an international corporation in 1967, when it opened a location in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada. By the end of the 1970s, McDonald's restaurants existed in five of the Earth's seven continents; an African location came in 1992 in Casablanca, Morocco.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wendy's</span> American international fast food chain

Wendy's is an American international fast food restaurant chain founded by Dave Thomas on November 15, 1969, in Columbus, Ohio. Its headquarters moved to Dublin, Ohio, on January 29, 2006. As of December 31, 2018, Wendy's was the world's third-largest hamburger fast-food chain with 6,711 locations, following McDonald’s and Burger King. On September 29, 2008, the company merged with Triarc Companies Inc., the publicly traded parent company of Arby's.

A hamburger is a specific type of burger. It is a sandwich that consists of a cooked ground beef meat patty, placed between halves of a sliced bun. Hamburgers are often served with various condiments, such as dill relish (condiment), mayonnaise, and other options including lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, and cheese.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carl's Jr.</span> American multinational fast food chain

Carl's Jr. Restaurants LLC is an American fast-food restaurant chain owned by CKE Restaurant Holdings, Inc., who also owns Hardee's, with franchisees in North and South America, Asia, Oceania, Europe, and Africa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ONroute</span> Chain of highway rest areas in Ontario, Canada

ONroute LP is a Canadian service company which has a 50-year concession to operate highway rest areas along Highway 400 and Highway 401 in the province of Ontario until 2060. The company was founded as Host Kilmer Service Centres, a joint venture between international hospitality company HMSHost and Kilmer van Nostrand. ONroute was acquired by Arjun Infrastructure Partners and Fengate Asset Management in May 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hero Certified Burgers</span> Hamburger restaurant chain in Ontario, Canada

Hero Certified Burgers is a Canadian restaurant chain franchise that sells hamburgers and other quick service restaurant fare. It is based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and was founded in 2004. It had almost 60 locations as of March 2017, and opened its first store in the United States in 2015 in Elmwood Village, Buffalo, New York. The Buffalo location closed at the end of 2016.

References

  1. ↑ Sue Campbell & Jen McMorran. "CANADA'S 8 GREATEST BURGER RESTAURANTS". Reader's Digest . Retrieved 19 October 2012.
  2. ↑ Kirkby, Bruce (5 October 2012). "On Muskoka's back roads I felt 17 again". The Globe and Mail . Retrieved 19 October 2012.
  3. ↑ Ogilvie, Megan (3 August 2012). "The dish on cottage country's famous foodie treats: burgers to butter tarts". Toronto Star . Retrieved 19 October 2012.
  4. 1 2 "Webers is golden | Barrie Examiner". 2013-08-20. Archived from the original on 2013-08-20. Retrieved 2018-08-08.
  5. 1 2 3 Taylor, Nathan (16 July 2009). "Webers not hurting". Orillia Packet and Times. Retrieved 20 October 2012.
  6. ↑ Dobson, Andrew (10 August 2011). "Review: Webers Hamburgers, Orillia". Dobbernation Loves. Retrieved August 13, 2012.
  7. 1 2 Reinhart, Anthony (12 March 2012). "Senior Weber would say 'well done'". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved August 14, 2013.
  8. ↑ Pigeau, Lee (Winter 2008). "Target $20 Million". Lakehead University Magazine. Retrieved 14 August 2013.
  9. ↑ "Famed Ontario cottage-country hamburger joint Webers under new ownership". Canada Press Newswire. 10 March 2004. ProQuest   346027436.
  10. ↑ "How a roadside burger joint became an Ontario institution". TVO. 2018-08-03. Retrieved 2018-08-28.
  11. ↑ Dunning, Jenni (2018-07-20). "Prime Minister Justin Trudeau drops into Webers on trip through region". Orillia Matters . Retrieved 2018-08-08.
  12. 1 2 Nicole Davis, Erin (2020-06-26). "Yes, Cottagers: Webers is Open and Now Accepts Debit". Storeys. Retrieved 2021-08-21.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.