Davidson’s Country Dining is celebrating 40 years in Innisfil on Oct. 26.
Located at 73 Big Bay Point Rd., Davidson’s Country Dining has a rich history in Innisfil.
“Stories of the grand hotels of the late 1800s — Peninsular, Robinsons — and steamships dropping off many summer tourists at Big Bay Point abound,” Donna Wice, the president of the Innisfil Historical Society, said.
“This was followed by a surge of affluent families building cottages to enjoy Lake Simcoe in the 1900s. Enter Davidson's Country Dining," she explained.
“Visitors, cottagers and fellow Innisfillites recognized the rarity of finding high-quality cuisine tucked into a quiet corner of their world. Big Bay Point may not be on the regular go-to route for most of Innisfil, but Dan's restaurant has certainly filled a well-appreciated niche for four decades,” Wice said.
Dan Davidson bought the restaurant in 1984 after purchasing his first house in the area for $6,000 following graduation from college.
“We put an offer in on the restaurant for a ridiculous amount and they took it,” Davidson said. “I had to find the money real fast.”
“As a matter of fact, when I bought the restaurant, I was still paying back my school loans,” he laughed.
But the 40-year journey — that ultimately led to Davidson’s Country Dining becoming a fixture in the community and hangout for customers and friends alike — could have ended shortly after it began.
“Two years later, I lost the restaurant. The partner I had at the time decided to steal the restaurant from me,” Davidson explained.
He had been locked out. Fortunately, a neighbour from up the street, Mrs. Hughes — whose husband invented corrugated cardboard and founded Hughes Containers — gave him some advice.
“She said, ‘You're gonna set up a corporation, and you're gonna go around the Point’ — it was Thanksgiving weekend — ‘and you're gonna sell shares.’ And, she says, ‘I'm gonna call a few people.”
One of the people she called was Tom Wilson, who owned a law firm in Barrie; he offered $5,000 worth of his legal expertise to Davidson for free.
“On the Thanksgiving weekend, I think I raised $45,000,” Davidson said. “It took me a couple of weeks after that to raise the $65,000 I needed. And we went to battle and I got the restaurant back.
“It was no longer my restaurant. It was the community's restaurant because they had shares in the place,” he said. “You are obligated to make it work.”
Davidson told InnisfilToday that he bought the shares back from the community members except for those held by two silent shareholders who accept payment of their dividends — a glass of Scotch — annually.
“I did not make this restaurant successful. My customers made it successful.”
Longstanding customers will join Davidson and his staff on Oct. 26 for an evening of live music, provided by Thomas Kovacs, and tried-and-true culinary classics — such as Davidson’s prime rib followed by homemade pies, bread pudding, and cake.
Davidson loves cooking and will create specials in honour of the anniversary with ingredients sourced from a 100-mile radius of the restaurant, as always — except for mussels and shrimp, which come from Nova Scotia. He told InnisfilToday that he enjoys recreating dishes from his travels with the highest-quality ingredients he can find.
All patrons who wish to share a story about Davidson’s Country Dining are invited to drop by to say hello that afternoon, as he and his team will be writing a book about the restaurant’s long tenure.
“Anyone that's come in here in the last 40 years, come on in and tell your story. We'll record it and then we'll put it in the book,” Davidson explained. The book will also contain a few recipes that Davidson has perfected over the years.
Though he served as a town councillor, and then as deputy mayor for two terms, Davidson said the restaurant serves as his legacy in the community.
“People have had weddings here, Bar Mitzvahs here, celebrations of life, and anniversaries,” he said.
In fact, Davidson’s Country Dining served as the setting for several “unions” — as they were called — in the 1990s before same-sex marriage was legal in Canada.
“I was told that I would go out of business if I continued having unions,” he said. Amid the backdrop of the HIV/AIDS pandemic that raged from the early 1980s to the early 1990s, Davidson told InnisfilToday that, as a gay man, he was denied a mortgage when bank personnel found out about his sexual orientation. “I had to find a mortgage within three days,” he said.
Though issues linger, public perception of LGBTQIA+ people and the rights of same-sex couples — like Davidson and his husband, Camilo — have shifted and progressed throughout the decades. Davidson’s Country Dining was part of that shift as the Gay & Lesbian Association of Simcoe County (GLASS) used to meet at the restaurant every Tuesday night.
“It became known through the community as ‘Gay Night’ on Big Bay Point… the women from the golf course were a hoot,” Davidson said. “They wanted to come on Gay Night because this is when the most fun happened here.”
One of his best customers gave him a CD at that time that became an unofficial anthem of the restaurant. In keeping with tradition, he assured InnisfilToday that the second-to-last or last song that will play long past children’s bedtimes on Oct. 26 will be that song, titled, Who The F*** Is Alice?
Throughout the last four decades, Davidson’s Country Dining’s rustic wood interior, complete with art by local artists — including a piece by Davidson himself — newspaper clippings and photos of community members and celebrities, has welcomed many employees.
Their longest-standing employee, affectionately referred to by her nickname, Aggie, joined Davidson’s Country Dining when she was 55 years old. She left Davidson’s Country Dining in her mid-eighties when she became an author. At 98 years old, Aggie has dementia, but Davidson said she knows exactly where she is when she enters the restaurant.
“We've had hundreds and hundreds of kids working,” Davidson said. “They’ve gone on to make bands — including a band called Zeus… kids that have started here as dishwashers are chefs in Vancouver now.”
He told InnisfilToday that Davidson’s Country Dining is finally back to pre-pandemic revenue.
“I appreciate all the employees that came back — or came aboard — after COVID. It was a journey to find people.”
Davidson says he is open to retiring, but only if he can find the right buyer, as he seeks to “pass the torch” to the next owner. He is not interested in selling Davidson’s Country Dining to someone who will tear it down and build a Tim Hortons franchise, for example.
“You have no idea how generous some people can be and are,” Davidson said of the community. “I love Innisfil.”
“Innisfil’s unique,” he explained.
To learn more about Davidson’s Country Dining’s 40th anniversary on Oct. 26 — including what time people can drop by in the afternoon to record their stories — check out the restaurant’s Facebook page here.
