EDITOR'S NOTE: This article is part of a new BurlingtonToday series — 'THIS IS BURLINGTON' — that showcases the people, places, organizations and businesses that make our city so special. Click HERE to read every story in the series, which will run throughout the month of November.
The Windmill Restaurant is unlike any other dining experience in Burlington.
It’s a place where everybody knows each other; and after your first visit, you know you’ll be back.
Thanasi Mercouris and his father Chris Mercouris run the family restaurant. Chris discovered the Mountainside Drive diner back in the 1980s. He was driving home to Toronto from a trip to Niagara Falls when he stopped to have coffee. He learned the owner was looking to sell the place.
“I drove around the area, and I thought, 'I’ll take a shot,'” he said.
After six months of commuting, he moved to Maple Avenue and eventually settled on Stanley Drive, practically within eyesight of the popular eatery.
The family cafe has a genuinely friendly atmosphere, which has helped it outlast many of the businesses in the area.
Next year, the family will celebrate 40 years in business - quite a feat for any establishment, let alone an independent restaurant.
It’s a special place, which is part of the charm, but more than anything, the people - both customers and staff - make it a local favourite.
Thanasi, 42, grew up washing dishes standing on a milk crate and sleeping on a couch in the back. He remembers it well. “That was before child labour laws,” he laughed. “Boy, time flies.”
And customers who remember him as a boy like to share their memories of shaking the dark locks of hair on his wee head when he was just waist-high.
The interview with BurlingtonToday is something they’ve never done before, having never had any exposure, paid advertising, no website, no social media accounts or any public relations. During the session, several people came over to say hello to the Mercourises, extend well wishes and openly offer memories from the past.
Practically everyone’s on a first-name basis, and same goes for second- and even third-generations of families who visit.
An those who prefer solitude are welcome, too. They said they have a few regular patrons who prefer to dine alone, and will read quietly at their table.
Otherwise, it’s a prospering, jovial place, filled with smiles, laughter and authentic friendships.
It’s kind of like a mix of Mel’s Diner – for anyone old enough to recall the show Alice – and Cheers, minus the bar and stools.
“On any given day, there’s a 99 per cent chance that someone who walks in the door will know someone else here,” Thanasi said.
It’s a place where anyone can come for comfort, good value and delicious meals featuring fresh ingredients and food prepared on site. Chris, 73, lives above the restaurant in the building he purchased in 2000, and grows herbs, vegetables, flowers and lemons. He enjoys making use of the food he’s grown - and there’s no charge for a lemon slice here.
Chris knows his customers' orders so well, he said he’s even had people’s food ready at a table before they got inside. Windmill has been a weekly, if not daily, routine for most of their patrons for decades.
Best known for breakfast – specifically the home-fries (made in-house) – and eggs prepared any way, the Windmill goes through some 30 dozen eggs on any given Saturday. Other popular items are turkey sandwiches at lunch that boast roasted fresh turkey.
Home-made soups are another specialty and something Chris takes pride in creating. He used to enjoy prepare soups when he worked in the Toronto kitchen of a high-end steak house just before he came to the Windmill.
On alternating Fridays, the restaurant offers fish and chips, featuring a big cut of haddock and clam chowder, or spaghetti with meat sauce and French onion soup.
Lunch specialties like the clubhouse, sliced turkey or Western sandwiches, hamburgers, or hot turkey or beef are also popular, along with pork roast and schnitzel.
The Windmill is licensed, though beer sales dropped from days when they’d be ordering cases and cases of beer each week.
In the early days, people would get their coffee at the Windmill, – they’d serve 300 coffees during the morning rush – but that’s changed now that there are franchise coffee shops on every corner.
They’ve kept prices affordable all these years, and said they’d rather “be more reasonable and more generous. That’s how we keep things,” Chris said. “Families have been very good to us.”
They never changed the name from the original owner, who was driving home from Florida one day, and saw a Windmill Restaurant. He thought he’d like to name his place that, and the rest is history; most associate a windmill with Dutch heritage but that's not the case here.
Chris is Greek, and Thanasi’s mom Barb is German. Now divorced, she used to be a waitress at the restaurant.Thanasi, who graduated from M.M. Robinson High School, recalls her making room for people during busy times.
“She would just invite people to sit beside each other to make room,” he laughed. “That’s how everybody got to know everybody.”
Thanasi has followed suit: his friends tease him that he always seems to know everyone.
“They joke that I always know somebody, everywhere we go,” said Thanasi, who attended both Clarksdale and Rolling Meadow elementary schools. “They say, ‘You should run for mayor.’”
He recalled one day when some 15 people were eating in the restaurant; all of them knew each other and they got into a discussion, saying "'The Windmill is ‘my place'; 'No it’s not, it’s my place.’” All of them gave examples of good things happening within three hours of leaving the diner.
“The charm of this hole-in-the-wall spot is something else,” he said.
One of Thanasi’s best friends says he wants to have his funeral at the Windmill Restaurant.
The Windmill is open six days a week. Chris said people, including other restaurants in the area, encourage him to open on Sundays. “‘You’d make millions,’” they tell him.
“I don’t need millions,” he said, explaining he’d rather he and his staff of five have the day off for family time and activities such as fishing or skiing.
“What else do I need?” he asked. “We’re not greedy. We’re happy with enough. You need to have a day of rest. I’d have more money, but then I’ll be dead. You don’t need anything more than necessity; there’s no reason to.”
Thanasi, now married with two children ages six and four, also calls Burlington home. In 2016, he got his real estate licence; he dabbled in it, briefly considered it full-time, and then decided to stay at The Windmill - it’s where his heart is, and it makes him happy. Now, he only works real estate for friends and family.
The Windmill’s decor has changed over the years, but the floor has remained the same along with booth-style dining. A few stand-alone tables are a last choice when the restaurant is at its busiest; its capacity is 44 people. In the summer, they open an outdoor patio in the parking lot where guests can enjoy the sunshine and colourful planters carefully arranged by the family. Staff are usually long-time employees too, averaging 15 years.
Patrons include the locals: anyone who’s lived in the Mountainside area can attest to it being like a small village of blue-collar workers within the city, with neighbourhoods being places where life-long friendships are made. But you’ll find a smattering of CEOs, lawyers, and even celebrities such as Hee Haw's Gordie Tapp (who passed away in Burlington in 2016 at 94).
Other regulars travel from far and wide to eat a meal at the restaurant at least once a week, and sometimes every day for one particular gentleman.
The restaurant is open weekdays 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Saturdays, 7 a.m. to 2 p.m.
