Midway Diner in Barrie faces demolition for waste water centre expansion

The City of Barrie has plans to demolish the beloved Midway Diner to the disappointment of many.

The well-known Midway Diner in Barrie is fast approaching the finish line as the City plans to expand its waste water centre, news that shocked the iconic restaurant’s long-time owner.

Matthew Jones has owned the Bradford Street diner for more than 20 years and lives in the space above it. He said while he was surprised the city plans to demolish the building, he was “sort of preparing for it, for a while.”

The diner, which has been a staple in Barrie since the ’60s, has seen generations of customers come and go.

Barrie resident Melissa Mitchell has ties to the diner. “My great-grandmother Unis White used to work here during the war, and she used to bring her vegetables in from the garden, which was just around the corner,” Mitchell said. “Our family spent many times here having lunch.”

A petition to save the diner has garnered nearly 1,300 signatures.

“We still have customers that come in that were coming here in high school in the 1960s,” Jones shared. “Even before that, it was the Midway. I’ve got people in their 90s that remember it from the ’40s and ’50s.”

Jones, the diner’s fourth owner, said he’s preparing for the worst but is hoping to find a new location in the city. As it stands now, he’ll have to vacate the premises by the end of the year and will start selling off memorabilia from the diner in December.

Long-time employee Chrissy James, who met her husband while working at the diner, expressed her emotional attachment to the diner, saying, “This has been my life for a long time, so getting it taken away is hard.”

The community is rallying behind the diner, with many residents praising its nostalgic charm. As Jones said, “Sixty years is a long time, and people have grown up with it.”