Two Barrie favourites join forces to launch new chapter in dining

Decades-old friends and business owners facing closure serve up a new chapter under one roof.

Two of Barrie’s favourite eateries are now one, and it’s all thanks to a 40-year friendship, a little bad timing, and a lot of karma. The Lazy Tulip Café and the Midway Diner are merging to give customers a taste of something entirely new while keeping decades of memories alive under one roof.

Michelle Huggins, owner of the Mulcaster Street café, teamed up with her longtime friend Matthew Jones, best known for running the Bradford Street diner. The pair are now blending their talents and menus to create a new dining experience with a familiar name but in a new location.

Both businesses were facing closure for different reasons, one set to be demolished, the other due to an expired lease. But instead of letting the closures be the end of an era, Huggins and Jones saw it as the perfect opportunity.

“Matt and I have just been in each other’s lives since I was 19 years old, and we seem to be karmically attached,” Huggins said.

Jones agreed, “We can’t be separated.”

“The fact that we both lost our restaurants at the same time, it’s, you know why, it’s because we’re karmically attached,” Huggins added.

The newly revamped ‘Lazy Tulip’ will officially open at 190 Cundles Road East on Oct. 4. Until then regulars can eat up every last moment of nostalgia at the existing locations until the doors are closed for good.