The owners of Queen's Café are so grateful for the community support they’ve received since opening over a year ago, they want to make free Christmas dinners a yearly tradition.
Owners of the restaurant, Ron Hill and Tammy Hsieh are preparing 250 Christmas meals for anyone in need to give out for free in Queen's Café, located on Victoria Road at Elizabeth Street.
Hill said the staff will personally drop off some meals to low-income seniors in the area. Anyone who wants a meal is encouraged to come to the restaurant to pick up a free meal between 4 p.m. to 5 p.m on Christmas day.
“It will be first-come, first-serve,” said Hill.
“I'm not sure how many people we are going to get but we are going to prepare 250 meals.”
Last year, the restaurant served 100 free turkey dinners for Thanksgiving which included turkey, homemade gravy, vegetables, and mashed potatoes. The couple also purchased pumpkin pie to hand out for free.
“Our hope is that this can become our tradition. We did one last year, we’re doing one this year, and hopefully next year it will continue,” said Hsieh adding that in comparison to what the community has done for them, this is only a small gesture to give back.
Hill said although the Queen's Café was hit by the pandemic, it never closed its doors and adapted to the take out model which was successful because of its loyal clientele.
“We still can't open up a restaurant. We’re too small and have four, five tables. We just continue the takeout,” said Hill.
“The community has been so kind to us. Everybody has been more than supportive. We have a lot of loyal customers and we just want to do something nice for the public.”
Hill said while it might take some time to make all the meals, the restaurant has commercial equipment to speed up the process.
“We have some great staff as well that are volunteering their time on Christmas Day. They think it's a worthy cause too,” said Hill.
“Last year went over very well. We got a lot of great comments and feedback and people appreciated it.”
