…..or is it?

On this Canada Day weekend many cottagers who are heading north to Orillia and beyond will be making a pit stop at Weber’s, an Ontario landmark. All the years that I’ve been going to my cottage on Georgian Bay I’ve never been to Weber’s, mostly because it’s not on the way for me.

Last weekend I passed Weber’s on the way to a friends place and on the way home I decided I needed to stop at Weber’s, just to say that I’ve been there and experienced one of their ‘legendary’ burgers. 

Weber’s is a family run business that Paul Weber started in 1963. The burger hut became so popular that the Ministry of Transportation put up barriers between the south and north bound  lanes on Highway 11 to keep people from crossing the busy highway. It was becoming a serious safety hazard. The barrier, unfortunately, seriously affected Weber’s business so they purchased a section of bridge from the CN Tower in Toronto and were given permission to erect it over the highway in 1983. To this day this is the only privately owned bridge, anywhere in Ontario, that spans a provincial highway. 

Travellers now can park on either side of the highway and have easy and safe access to Weber’s. Over the years the business has been passed on to Paul Weber Jr. and many new additions have been made to the property. There are two separate entrances and two separate grilling stations to reduce the line-ups and picnic tables have been set up in well kept park like settings. There is also a diner style car on the property if you want to eat indoors. 

I thought the line-ups would a problem for me but they have a  very efficient system that gets you in and out very quickly. The burgers were good but I didn’t think they were any better than a Harvey’s burger or Southside  burger. In fact these places have more options when it comes to toppings and choice of buns.

The organization has become so large that refrigerated box cars are on the property to store the meat and over 400 stores across Canada now sell Weber burgers. The weekend I went was before the long weekend in July, when the really busy summer traffic begins. I can only imagine that the line-ups will be considerably longer and the wait times as well. Would I stop there again? Maybe but I certainly wouldn’t go out of my way for a Weber’s burger. I know there are people out there that would disagree with me but a least I can say that I’ve been there, done that.

For more information about the history of Weber’s you can check out this link.

Cheers!