The story of Paula’s Pantry is best told over cookies and milk.
The cookies should still be a little warm, and the tale shared while everyone sits around a kitchen table worn by years of family dinners, children learning how to use utensils and homework projects shared by the whole family.
Paula’s Pantry and Gifts is a dream thought up by the youngest of three sisters. It is a family business in every sense from the date squares to the sisters who to the baking and the serving.
“Even for a family business, I think we’re still unique,” said Marlene Thompson, the oldest of the three sisters who worked together for 32 years to build Paula’s Pantry.
Paula Stickley thought of the name Paula’s Pantry before the idea was anything more than plans on paper.
But she had planned it out in detail as she attended classes in the culinary management program at Georgian College.
In her final year, with just a co-op and a semester remaining, her sisters Marlene Thompson and Rhonda Morby with her parents got together to buy the building on Hurontario and Eighth Street.
Paula got permission from the college to get co-op credits by starting her own business. She was 19 at the time, Marlene was 24 and Rhonda was 22. They have another sister who lives in Newmarket with her family and she helps at Paula's Pantry when she visits.
The mortgage was turned down by several banks, until someone - who is still anonymous today - at a mortgage centre approved the loan.
“They told us he said, ‘family businesses will not fail',” said Paula.
They still don’t know who to thank, but he was right about Paula’s Pantry.
When the bakery opened, the whole family pitched in. Dad made soup and chatted with the customers. Mom helped in the front serving customers and running orders. Rhonda stayed at her job at Community Living, helping at Paula’s part time and using her pay cheque from Community Living to help support the business. Paula took a $30/week paycheque to cover her car insurance and gas to and from school.
Family friend Sylvia helped in the kitchen and still does today.
Mom, who is now 85, comes to Paula’s everyday still to help wash dishes and run orders to the customers.
“Without one of us, it wouldn’t be,” said Paula. “It was all or nothing.”
Certainly, the three sisters gave it all for Paula’s Pantry, covering for each other’s brief maternity leaves - Paula has three children and Rhonda has one - for weddings and funerals and other family events.
“We have stepped in to fill in for each other, that’s what family does,” said Marlene.
Rhonda, teary eyed thinking about her sisters and their lives together pops up to help a customer who walked in.
“They’ve been coming here since we opened,” Paula said of the customers.
“I used to come in her with my mum,” the customer calls back.
“The customers have become part of our family,” said Rhonda. “We have some men who come in twice a day. When they miss a day, we wonder if they are OK.”
Rhonda recalls customers who have come in right after they’ve been released from hospital with a new baby. They stop at Paula’s Pantry before heading home. One woman called Paula to have cookies mailed to Ottawa as a surprise for her husband. His fondest childhood memory was cookies at Paula’s Pantry after school and his longing for those cookies inspired his wife’s surprise.
One woman started going into labour at the restaurant and paced the floor there until it was time to go to the hospital.
“I’ve had some people say, ‘I hope you consider me your family, because that’s how I feel about you guys',” said Marlene. “I think in this day and age, a lot of people are looking for family.”
“The best part has been that we get to work with family,” said Paula. “What a void it would have been.”
Paula and Marlene run the kitchen with Sylvia, using their grandmother’s date square recipe and the family cookie recipe to make their famous cookies.
Paula and Sylvia are the artistic ones, they make the special occasion cakes and cupcakes.
The newest venture at Paula’s Pantry and Gifts is frozen, individual servings, which can be ordered for pick up by phone or on Facebook.
Though the sisters say they have more years behind them than ahead of them, they continue to make soups, sandwiches and treats for their customers. Find them on Facebook, online or stop by the store, still located at Hurontario and Eighth Street.
In the 32 years since Paula and her sisters opened the door, they’ve been through a lot, including the death of their father. They have definitely argued, but always pulled through without regrets.
“We had no doubts,” said Marlene. “Lots of people did, but we knew it would go.”
And it has gone better than little Paula ever dreamed.
