The owner of an iconic Timmins business rescued another locally famous enterprise from closure. And he has big plans for both.
Andre Ouellet is the second-generation owner of Don’s Pizzeria. His father, Don, established the business in 1966 and became known locally as the King of Pizza.
Ouellet has purchased Christopher’s Coffee House and its Pine Street South property.
Just down the street, he has also finished renovations at Don’s Pizzeria, to improve the customer experience at the iconic restaurant.
His goal is to combine the two businesses together in the Christopher’s building within about 18 months.
“We’re going to amalgamate both businesses together,” he said. “And I’m bringing the new look (of Don’s Pizzeria) with me.”
In the meantime, it is business as usual at both locations.
At Christopher’s, improvements for customer service and selection have already begun. It is already a much more time-friendly place for downtown customers with limited lunch breaks.
“We’re trying to improve the service,” Ouellet said. “We brought in a salad and soup bar.
“The number one thing in business is service. With the increase in wages (provincial minimum wage) we are not over hiring people to speed up service.
“Creating other things like the salad and soup bar makes service a little faster. If they want a sandwich, they can start eating and then get their sandwich, instead of looking at their watch and thinking ‘I’ve only got 10 minutes left.’”
His staff has been supportive throughout the changes.
“I have a good staff,” he said. “My wife is working at Christopher’s and we’ve got Tammy here.
“When I come up with an idea, they don’t try to talk me down, they say ‘is there a way we can work around it?’ We have good customers that give us good advice, too.”
He is also drawing on his own personal dining experiences when shaping the new Don’s at Christopher’s.
“My experience at the Hard Rock Cafe was overwhelming. I don’t drink. But they had a beautiful bar with all kinds of draft,” Ouellet said. “My goal is to eliminate bottles and bring in drafts. The new place will have a 20-foot bar, 86-inch TV, 18 different drafts to choose from, a full-fledged bar, and a full-fledged menu.
“Combining both places together, we’ll have more to offer. There will be specialty coffees, salad with your meal, unlimited salad and soup for a little extra cost. That’s the upcoming changes, not the (Don’s) food.”
The current challenge is keeping both businesses operating smoothly while preparing for the changes. There is plenty to do.
“Getting both properties amalgamated, getting the architect to get the floor plan done, the rest of the booths that go with these ones, setting up the refrigeration downstairs (at Christopher’s) for the draft system, getting a dough room ready for our original crispy crust dough ... There is more involved than people think,” he explained. “Anyone wanting to start something like this, it would take almost a year to get it open. I’m looking at (a total investment of) about $1.2 million by the time I’m done.”
Lessons he learned from his father are helping to make this new venture come together.
“The number one thing is stubbornness. You can make things work,” he said.” There is always a solution to the problem, you just have to find it. Sometimes it costs a little more money than it should, but you find the solution and you fix it.”
While it is a lot of work, Ouellet still has a passion for his profession.
“(I like) being creative with food,” he said. “It’s like when I was a hair stylist, what kept me going is being creative. My wings are number one. Our pizza poutines are number one also.
“Trying to come up with new things, like my chicken burgers now are, like, there’s meat in the bun. (Some places) there is two ounces of meat and the rest is batter. When I sell a chicken burger, people usually have a hard time finishing it.”
While he has a deep respect for the original legacy of Don’s, he is working hard to establish one of his own
“When my father first opened on Algonquin, where the old cop station was, he was selling five, six pizzas a day. Then he started advertising on CTV, then the sales maximum was, because of the way it was set, up 150 pizzas a night. He was maxed out almost every night.”
Then Don’s moved to Third Avenue, and “his average pushing pizzas was almost 6-700 units per night, that’s not counting everything else, that’s just pizza.” After a move to Rea and Wilson, there was a big change in takeout, and had the highest volume in town.
The business moved Mountjoy Street for sit-down dining “instead of just takeout, takeout, takeout.” Business slowed down, but was picked up again when Andre started Don’s famous pizza poutine.
“It put us on the map again,” he said.
Then they moved to Pine Street.
“Yeah, that was a good move,” he said with a smile.
Ouellet is understandably excited about the upcoming improvements and changes.
“This is going to be an even better move. It’s going to be successful,” he said. “There’s going to be lineups outside to come in to eat.”
