Friday, August 19, 2005

On the road again

Quick post while on a short family vacation to Kingston and the Thousand Islands.

Wonderful entrepreneurial story in Reid's Dairy, a local production, wholesale and retail business in lovely Belleville, Ont. Founded by a post-war German refugee, it has become a local legend, and with a people's touch. Its factory outlet store has great products at cool prices, and the old-fashioned ice-cream parlour attached to the plant (it's the castle you see in the distance when driving along the 401) has wonderful treats at prices that let families afford to upgrade to waffle cones.

(I had the looney milkshake, thining that anyone selling milkshakes for a buck these days deserves encouragement.) The straw doesn't just stand up straight in a Reid's shake - you need two hands to pull it out.

My kids loved the ice cream, the little zoo, pond and playground - all warm personal touches in a cool world. They want to move to Belleville.

August 21 update: Later on the trip we saw two more Reid's Dairy stores - in Kingston and Whitby. Motivated to do some actual research, I found they have 23 stores now between Kingston and Toronto. Good on 'em! You can view their website here.
You can even print out a handy shopping list!

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