A popular breakfast spot on Mississaga Street has transformed into an “experience” restaurant.
Recently, Tammies Place owner Tammy Grant decided to stop offering what once made her restaurant a staple: breakfast. She has also rebranded the restaurant to be called the Sunken Ship Tropical Bar and Tiki Lounge and has renovated the space to reflect the island theme.
“Business since COVID has changed,” Grant said. “With prices for ingredients the way they are, what you have to charge for a breakfast is just not feasible.”
In December 2020, Grant and her husband, Chris, converted their parking lot into a winter wonderland by building snow globes and fire pits to offer a unique and safe dining experience during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Grant says she has had customers drive four to five hours to eat in the snow globes, shop downtown, and stay in local hotels.
In the summer of 2021, Tammies Place completed a patio makeover to transition the restaurant into a cabana-style bar, which has become the permanent direction of the business.
“When nobody could travel, we wanted to make it an experience as opposed to somewhere you just go to eat,” Grant said. “In the summertime, it’s like you’ve walked into the islands, which gives that vacation vibe.”
She began hiring Hawaiian luau dancers, local bands, and local artists to perform on the patio to help attract people to the downtown restaurant.
“It was a new start,” she said. “It was definitely a roll of the dice because we didn’t know what was going to happen with the pandemic.”
Grant says her customer base of 10 years was supportive of the innovations, which kept the business afloat.
In September 2022, after three years of offering unique dining experiences in their former parking lot, Grant and her husband shifted their focus to the inside of the restaurant. They brought in a 30-foot “shipwreck” and converted it into a bar. They also hired a local painter to decorate the inside of the restaurant with original designs.
“Chris has the vision,” she said. “He’s the engineer and designer for all of our cabanas, tiki bar, and has redesigned the boat bar as well.”
While she says about half of her original customers are excited about the changes and the new direction of the restaurant, the others are going to miss the breakfast.
“A lot of the restaurants that are still doing breakfast have forgone dinner,” she said. “We’ve all had a choice. We cannot work 20 hours a day. We can’t staff three shifts. So, what are we going to give up? That’s what everybody’s had to choose.”
Grant says her restaurant has also attracted many new customers since incorporating the dining experiences.
“We do trivia on Monday nights. We do karaoke on Thursdays. So, we provide an experience where people can go and do stuff at night,” she said. “It attracts a lot of the younger crowd and tourists.”
She isn’t done innovating and experimenting. Customers should expect to see new menu items, new specialty drinks, and unique entertainment as the restaurant continues to evolve.
“We make it fun here,” she said. “We’ve come a long way.”
While snow globe season is coming to a close at the Sunken Ship Tropical Bar and Tiki Lounge, the popular patio is set to open May 5.
