The friendly little family restaurant on the corner of Durham and William Streets has been a landmark in Lindsay since the early 1940’s.
In 1990 Steve Green and his wife Debbie, who have been locals for almost 40 years, purchased the restaurant, originally called “Craig’s Box Lunch”, and appropriately re-named it “The Durham Cafe”. Since that time Steve and Debbie have made the restaurant their life. Although Steve has never had any formal culinary schooling he was fortunate enough to spend time working with four or five European trained chefs and found that the hands on training he received was just as valuable if not more so, than any formal schooling he could have had. That, coupled with his experience as a cook at other local restaurants since 1978, as well as his un-dying love of cooking made him the man for the job.
Steve and Debbie consider themselves very fortunate to have eleven loyal staff working for them who help make the Durham Café such a success with their customers. Steve has two expert chefs helping him out in the kitchen, Shane who has been with him for 16 years and Jerry who has been with him for 2 years. The gals who wait the tables and serve the customers so expertly have also been with him for over eight years, and accommodate each other by arranging their work schedules among themselves.
It seems that when a group of people who have worked so well together for that long a period of time it’s just like a cozy family, and you will find that atmosphere evident when visiting the café. Although the Durham café is open for breakfast at 6:00 am, and seems to be filled with many of the same guests every morning, the lunch crowd appears to be the busiest time. With seating for 63 patrons, the café is filled to capacity every day, six days a week. The people come back again and again from far and near to enjoy the variety of delicious entrees on the menu, and serving sizes that would satisfy any hungry man’s appetite.
At 3:00 pm weekdays, and 2:00 pm weekends they close up and get ready for their guests coming by the next day. Steve and his chefs’ prep time for the next day’s meals is minimal and usually no more than a couple of hours. Steve’s practice is to have the food they serve, made fresh each day as required.
Steve is extremely dedicated to his restaurant and his customers as shown by his 12 and 14 hour days. If you were to ask Steve his advise in starting up your own business, especially the restaurant business, he would tell you “Be prepared to sacrifice your social life, no two ways about it, put your all into it and forget weekends”. Sounds tough, but from talking to Steve the personal rewards are worth it.
Drop by the Durham café on the corner of Durham and William in Lindsay for a scrumptious mouth watering meal and find out for yourself!
Durham Cafe
102 William St S,
Lindsay, ON K9V 3B1
(705) 878 3853
