Pebbles Family Buffet is located at 313010 Highway 6 in Durham, Ontario.
This is a fantastic buffet restaurant run by old order Mennonites – the staff are mostly women in bonnets.
Roast beef, steaks, fried chicken, butter fried potatoes, tons of meat, great pies and desserts.
Highly recommended.
Visited September 18, 2026.
Vinylly Vintage is located at 88 Britannia Road East, Goderich, Ontario.
Interesting music, game, comic, and magazine store. Good selection at reasonable prices.
Had old National Lampoon and Mad Magazine issues on the rack like it was still 1984, selling for a couple bucks apiece.
The staff themselves seemed like they had been working this place since the early 80s, with the same attitude, dress, conversations.
Very authentic vibe. Liked it.
Visited September 18, 2026.
The Willow West Mall is located at 183 Silvercreek Parkway North in Guelph, Ontario.
Once a bright red 1970s style local shopping centre with a Zellers anchor, the mall has almost entirely been converted into an outdoor shopping plaza.
This short hallway leading to No Frills and a Dollar Tree is all that remains of the former indoor mall.
Visited September 17, 2026.
The Norfolk Mall, on Mall Road in Tillsonburg, Ontario is no longer all mall at all. Opened in the late 1970s, it has now been fully converted into an outdoor shopping plaza.
For years, this location had a Walmart that somehow retained the original early-1990s dark red and blue, block letter, and big dash corporate branding. Now finally gone and replaced with a newly opened Winners.
Visited September 17, 2026.
Not quite a dying mall, but not quite thriving either. The middle of Windsor’s three remaining malls, sitting in size between gigantic Devonshire and tiny Central Mall.
The food court in good shape, but the rest of the mall seems to be running at about half capacity.
One interesting thing on this visit was the appearance of a new Zellers. It seems to be a much smaller footprint than traditional Zellers stores, or the revived ones that have opened in places like Edmonton’s Londonderry Mall.
Visited August 17, 2026.
Central Mall is located at 3657 Tecumseh Road East in Windsor, Ontario.
This small local mall should be dead, but isn’t – it is one of Windsor’s three remaining indoor shopping malls.
Unrenovated 80s decoration and design, 80s kiddie rides, even tenants that have clearly been here since the 80s.
Visited August 17, 2026.
Finally crossed the new Gordie Howe Bridge between Detroit, Michigan and Windsor, Ontario. Surprisingly impressive to see. Huge and soaring in scale.
The approach on the Detroit side is a bit of a racecourse, with a lot of sharp twists and turns.
Faded but not forgotten. An awning covering the back alley door of the former Rendezvous Restaurant at 509 Talbot Street, St. Thomas Ontario.
The restaurant and tavern has been gone for decades – probably since the late 1980s though similar coverings were still visible over its wooden front door on Talbot Street into at least the early 1990s.
The Campus Hi-Fi Diner, 736 Richmond Street in London, Ontario.
This place has been around for decades, virtually unchanged. No one remembers how it got its name, but staff suspect it was simply to appeal to young students back in the day when Hi-Fi systems sounded hip and cool.
Good breakfast food. Good service. Reasonable prices. Not busy.
Visited August 7, 2026.
A long time book store at 262 Piccadilly Street in London, Ontario.
Very nice lady working the store when I visited.
Limited selection of new and used books. More children’s books than anything else.
I suspect it continues to be operated mostly as a hobby at this point.
Visited August 7, 2026.
