It's Halloween — the perfect time for a scary story about the spooky and unexplained right here in the Sunshine City.
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Melanie Robinson’s Eclectic Café has been a hit for local diners in downtown Orillia since she opened the doors to her new location at 39 Mississaga St. W. earlier this year.
While painstakingly transforming the long-time former home of Fred's Meat Market, which operated at the busy corner for nearly 50 years until it closed in March of 2014, Robinson came face-to-face with the mysteries of the past that many believe haunt the eerie aged chambers below.
“I used to go to Fred’s Meat Market quite frequently, and was very sad when it closed. This is such an iconic spot in Orillia,” said Robinson of her eatery's new home.
A part of what was so appealing to Robinson about the location was the history of the building. In fact, Robinson has honoured that history by hanging old posters she unearthed from Fred’s on the wall of her new restaurant.
“I like the fact that we can take this space and bring in something new, but still have a little bit of that history and nostalgia,” she said.
When Robinson began renovating the space and getting it ready for her café, she was introduced to the underground tunnels that lie beneath her business and many other buildings in downtown Orillia.
“I was waiting for someone to jump out and murder me," she said with a laugh. "It’s like exactly what you would think an old, creepy basement in a horror story would look like."
While Robinson continued her renovations, she felt uncomfortable with the idea of visiting the tunnels by herself.
“I felt a bit of tension in the basement. There were some moments where I felt the chills, and it just felt creepy down there,” she said.
A short time later, Robinson had a personal reading with local psychic medium Kristi Brommet, which was conducted away from the café. What Brommet revealed to Robinson was haunting.
“She said that there was a spirit that had attached itself to me and it was from the café,” Robinson said.
Robinson knew then she needed Brommet to come and visit the tunnels and to cleanse the area of any negative energy.
“I think maybe it attached itself to me because I’m open to that kind of thing and maybe it wanted help in some way,” Robinson thought.
What Brommet found in Robinson space was quite compelling.
“It definitely had an eerie feeling when the medium and I were down there,” Robinson remembers.
The first thing Brommet told Robinson was she sensed a spirit from the late 1800s who was enraged.
“She said there is somebody on the side of the wall that is like, 'Get me the f***ing key. I want out!'” Robinson recalls.
“She told me that if I find that key, take it into the country and whip it into a field because you don’t need to let that spirit out. It is crazy.”
There was another spirit that Brommet revealed to Robinson and this one was from the 1980s, and was not enraged, but rather more scared than even Robinson was.
“The medium told me that there was a spirit that was down there that had actually passed away in the basement and he was between 17 and 19 years old,” Robinson explained..
“She felt like something had happened like a drug overdose, and what she was getting was he was having a bad trip and his friends locked him in the room because they couldn’t deal with him, and he ended up passing away, and then his body was just disposed of, so to speak, and it was never really talked about.”
Brommet told Robinson that the young man was afraid, and was being harassed by the older, angry spirit.
Luckily for the spirit of the young man, Robinson says Brommet saw a very beautiful moment down in the creepy basement.
“When the medium was able to cleanse and release that spirit, his mother actually showed up and embraced him, and they left together,” Robinson said.
“She saw everything, she saw what the mother was wearing and she could even see her hair style.”
There have been rumours about the Mississaga Street building, and what lied underneath in the time before Fred’s Meat Market for so many years.
Robinson has been told that there is speculation of there being a jail and a brewery, but the only thing she knows for sure is there is at least 25 feet of brick tunnel lies underneath her bright restaurant.
Since Brommet's cleansing of the space, Robinson feels much better about her daily surroundings.
“The basement has turned into a more positive space. It is still really interesting and it does have a creepy feel and look, but I don’t feel the heaviness of it anymore,” Robinson said.
Robinson also says the upstairs part of the building, where her customers come in daily for their popular lunch menu and their locally sourced ingredients, is welcoming and a home to happy vibes.
“(Brommet) assured me that the space in the upstairs café part of the building had good ju-ju, which was awesome to hear,” Robinson said with a chuckle.
