MORRISTON – After 30 long years of serving breakfast to truck drivers, regulars and multiple generations from the same family, the owner and operator of a popular Highway 6 restaurant in Puslinch is hanging up her apron for good.
Irene Carr, owner of A Change of Pace restaurant in Morriston, has decided to retire and move back to her home of St. Bride’s in Newfoundland.
In an interview at the restaurant Wednesday, Carr said she had bought a house there in 2020.
“I haven’t even been there yet because I’ve been here,” Carr said. “I just feel it’s time to move back.”
When she first came to Ontario from the East Coast, Carr went to work in restaurants as it’s what she knew and loved.
She and another friend then decided to open a place together which would become A Change of Pace.
“Both our husbands were truck drivers and we figured that it would be nice for a truck driver to have a nice home cooked meal on the road,” Carr said.
Her friend has long since moved on but Carr has owned and operated the business since it first opened in December 1993. For the first 10 years it was in Aberfoyle in the building that was most recently the Village Family Restaurant before moving to its current location in the plaza at the busy intersection of Highway 6 and Calfass Road.
This location means a lot of passerby traffic come through the doors looking for its fare of the usual diner breakfast staples, burgers, sandwiches and some “hefty meals.”
The place also has its share of regulars who Carr has come to know through chatting with them as she serves them. One of these regulars commented before leaving that the restaurant is “a gem” that will be missed and is his mother’s favourite place to eat.
Some of these customers she’s known for their whole lives, such as one 30-year-old woman Carr recalled coming by last weekend.
“Her grandparents came first, then her mother came and brought her in a car seat, now she brings her kids in a car seat,” Carr said. “Four generations, so that makes me cry. It made her cry because this is her whole life and she worked here too. It was her first job.”
Memories like this are why retiring has become a bittersweet experience for Carr. Some days she cries but others she feels good about it as the timing feels right based on how she feels about the current economic climate.
She’s noticed there’s less families coming out to eat, she’s facing higher rent and food prices which is creating tough times in the restaurant industry but she stressed she’s not going bankrupt.
“Everything is just going up, up, up,” Carr said. “It’s the right time to close.”
Carr isn’t sure what will happen next at the location but noted everything is being auctioned off so the next tenant will be starting from scratch.
The last day of restaurant service will be Dec. 17 with a thank you party for her staff and the community at the restaurant the next day with everyone welcome.
