Written & researched by Ron Nash
How would you describe a 98-year-old eating establishment? As there is very little signage these days, one cottager friend just calls it ‘The White House.’
The ‘White House’. Hill’s Maple Leaf Restaurant
It was not so at its beginning, where promoter Tom Hill did his all to make sure that his establishment was a dazzler. French’s Restaurant Stand had already been opened by George French in 1920, on CP Railway land on Lake Couchiching, so Tom Hill had to do something different.
Well, to inform a new generation let’s begin again with Tom, shall we? Born in England in 1860, Thomas emigrated to Canada in 1917 at age 57 mind you, and thence to Orillia in 1920. He and his wife, Ellen, by this time had twelve surviving of twenty-one children born after their marriage in 1898.
By 1925 Tom was selling confectionary from his cart, with ice cream and hot dogs his big sellers. While not allowed to sell from the public dock at Couchiching Beach Park, Tom opened the ‘Hot Dog Tom Stand’ at 80 Colborne Street West in 1926. And he also began pumping gas at this time, though horses were still aplenty. “The building was constructed of hand-made bricks (he was a bricklayer by trade), embedded with a variety of material from razor blades to discarded bits of crockery and glass.” Much of the glass, marbles and broken pop bottles had been supplied by neighbourhood children. As an added distinction Tom erected a monument of Lady Champlain, parodying the Champlain Monument in the Park he had been asked to leave.
‘It’s been an up-Hill Climb from a hot dogger who bootlegged beer’ Orillia Packet and Times, 1982.
Remember that this man was now 66, the same age as Harlan Sanders when he got his big break with Kentucky Fried Chicken. Perhaps more incredulous, this man taught himself to write at the age of seventy, while at the same time really starting to make money by selling bootleg beer, managing at the same time to keep a good relationship with the local constabulary. One of his pithy sayings was, “A loaf of bread, a pound of meat and all the mustard you can eat at Hot Dog Tom’s Restaurant.”
Being a promoter, Tom Hill’s Hot Dog Stand was on Colborne St. because it was part of Hwy # 11 at the time and was styled “(The) Original and most Unique Gas Depot in Orillia and for 50,000 miles.”
“(The) Original and most Unique Gas Depot in Orillia and for 50,000 miles.” Orillia Public Library History Collection.
“(The) Original and most Unique Gas Depot in Orillia and for 50,000 miles.” OMAH Collection.
Tom’s son Phonse was running the gas bar by 1935 and the restaurant itself by 1939. Continuing with his father’s entrepreneurial spirit, he acquired real estate nearby, and changed the name to Hill’s Lunchroom in 1949 and to Hill’s Drive-In in 1957. His wife apparently did all of the baking for the restaurant. After Phonse’s sons took over the enterprise, they later re-opened Hill’s Drive In, near the old location (where Hills Corp owned the front block on Colborne West, between Albert and Wyandotte Streets) on 2,700 square feet, with 28 employees serving one thousand customers a day.
Including the Hills brothers, John Hill, another son of Phonse, gave the family philosophy thus: “We try to give people enough food for what they are paying. We tried to design the location (the Drive In) like a family recreation room, so they would feel at home.”
So, things were really humming. However, regretfully Hill’s Drive-In was sold in 1977 and closed in 1979. (One Orillia Packet article said the old building was torn down and rebuilt at 72 Colborne West in 1962, while another says the old building was only demolished in 1975, before the re-opening. Perhaps the earlier teardown was simply for the restaurant which was originally added later, and not for the main old building).
Meanwhile, the Top of the Hill Restaurant, which was originally the Olympia in 1870, was purchased by Joe Hill, another son of Phonse in 1977. Then in 1981, Paul, yet another of the sons of Phonse Hill, and his nephew Tony, took over the restaurant that had originally been sold—styling it the New Maple Leaf Restaurant, and moving it to the present location at 181 Memorial Avenue.
Long term employees as well as long term customers have been part of the success of Hill’s Restaurant. Barb, one waitress, informed me that she had been on staff well over 40 years, so she may have joined the firm as about the time of the last move to Memorial Avenue.
Satisfied customers return and become generational patrons of good food at reasonable prices.
As so many other businesses, Hill’s Restaurant took a hit during COVID—having to truncate hours—while maintaining a brisk take-out business. With new ownership going to cousins Mike Hill (a grandson of Phonse, son of Joe) and Chris Hill recently, the two are poised to lead Hill’s to the 100-year anniversary in two years.
The ‘White House’ as mentioned earlier, has become the ‘Grand Dame’ of family restaurants in Orillia. With so many progeny, Tom Hill Sr. has spawned an enduring culinary institution which refused to be anchored to the past, but keeps pushing forward, to serve new generations of satisfied patrons. While this writer’s father was yet a boy when Hot Dog Tom began his ‘restauranting’, he certainly recalled being served meals there in the 1930s.
People change, palates change, but good food always appeals. We tip our hat to the Hill’s Restaurant of the future.
With Thanks To
Orillia Public Library – History Room (Local History Collection)
Postcard Memories – Marcel Rousseau
Orillia Matters
Orillia Museum of Art & History Collection