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“After all those years, I can still smell the hamburger patties cooking”, says Mrs. Jessie Stephens. Jessie was married to Tomahawk owner Chick Chamberlain for 35 years.
She first met Chick when she was a customer and he was doing almost all of his own cooking at the Tomahawk’s second location, when it used to operate where Burger King is located now. The first Tomahawk opened its doors in 1926 at Heywood Park.
After a year of dating Jessie married Chick, that was back in 1944 and without taking a breath she started spending every waking hour completely concerned with their business.
Jessie became known as the Tomahawk pie baker. She made everything from apple to lemon meringue and each piece sold for a nickel. Only using the freshest ingredients, the customers bought every piece of every pie and then some.
“Chick was very particular about shopping for all his own ingredients. He drove to a Lynn Valley farm to purchase fresh eggs and he had a favourite produce store where he hand picked every tomato and piece of lettuce,” remembers Jessie.
Not long after they were married their landlady, Mrs. Wilkins told them they would have to find a new location. The original deal was to allow the restaurant to rent her property until Mrs. Wilkins died, but it seems the owners of IGA offered Mr. Wilkins more money that he could possible imagine and he convinced his wife to sell.
For close to a year the Chamberlain’s lived on the groceries they took from the kitchen of the restaurant and hoped for the best. “It was such a terrible time, we had no money, we just bought a new house and we had lost the restaurant,” said Jessie.
The building where the Tomahawk sits now, used to be a church and the elders offered to sell it to Chick. Chick went across the street to see his buddy the bank manager (also a Tomahawk regular) and he went out on a limb and loaned him the money.
When Chick’s customers found out that the Tomahawk was going to open again they offered their skills, free of charge. The carpenters, plumbers and electrician all worked for nothing just to get the old place open again.
After a couple of months the Tomahawk as we know it, opened its doors and to Jessie’s amazement 50 customers were either standing in line or waiting in their cars at 8:00 in the morning.
“Within a year we paid back every penny of that loan, and to this day The Tomahawk is still cooking,” remembers Jessie, the pie baker.
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