How a local diner became home to one of the largest teapot collections

Westside Fish and Chips in Huntsville, Ont. is home to over 700 unique teapots. This blue teapot purchased from Zellers in the 90s kicked off the start of the large collection. (Supplied)

It all started with a blue, happy-faced teapot. No one could have ever predicted that one silly purchase from Zellers in the early 90s would grow into a 700-piece collection sitting in a special restaurant up north.

Back then, Bell technicians would stop by Westside Fish and Chips in Huntsville, Ont. for toast and coffee in the mornings, shared Debbie the owner of Westside Fish and Chips. All except John Bedore… John was a tea drinker. He liked his water boiled and appreciated that Westside served Tetley tea. One day, on a whim, Debbie said she served John his tea in the cheerful blue teapot that she had purchased.

“Back in the day we had a Zellers and they put all these teapots on sale, some had happy faces, some looked like they were drunk, many different choices, they were just cute. So, I bought the blue happy faced teapot and gave John his tea in it,” shared Debbie.

What started as a joke turned into a request. “Can I have my tea in the happy teapot too?” The blue teapot’s little legs made it wobbly and not practical so more were bought. Each with a different expression.

When the story reached Debbie’s mother who lived in Florida during the winter months, that’s when the collection began. That spring, she returned with a pig-shaped teapot, a piano, a woodstove and a typewriter. The collection began to grow not for display, but for use. People didn’t just come for tea anymore they came for the unique pots the restaurant offered.

“We have what’s called a ’24 plus one’ teapot, it’s huge. My mom made my dad drive 800 kilomertres out of his way to buy it. As she saw it in the window of a store that was closed at the time in a town they were passing through. Then, she found out that it was 500 dollars for the teapot, yikes! She felt bad for making my dad drive all that way so she bought it,” Debbie told CTV News.

While the collection blossomed, so did the memories. “My mom brought from two to five (teapots) home every year and shopped for them up here in the summer. My sister Sharon and I went thrifting every few weeks and found many of them,” she said.

Debbie reminisced on a time a handblown glass teapot donated by world-traveling customers shattered during a mop mishap. Or another time a teapot shaped like a toilet, hand-carried back from England could’ve broke in a checked luggage. And, when a couple donated over 80 animal-shaped teapots to the store.

The walls, shelves, and eventually the entire restaurant filled with character. A collection of over 50 painted ceiling tiles created mostly by Debbie’s dad during Florida winters added another layer to the already whimsical space.

Over time, the teapots became part of the community. Regulars brought their grandkids in to see the ones they remembered from their own childhoods.

Some customers, worried the restaurant might close and began buying two to three teapots at a time.

Now, there are still over 500 teapots, including a full lineup of Christmas-themed ones that come out only during the season. While Westside hasn’t closed, there’s a bittersweet note in the air. If someone buys the land and tears it down for condos as so often happens it could mark the end of an era.

“I figured I would let go what does go now, and spread the rest around in the empty spaces as we aren’t closed, I’m just preparing for the possibility,” she said.

Debbie hopes that one person will keep Westside alive, continue the tradition, and maybe even add to the unique collection.

“I’m really hoping and praying that someone loves our restaurant and buys the land and buildings and continues the restaurant. If they like the teapot idea and want to carry it on, they can keep what’s left and start adding with their own teapot collection and their own stories behind them,” she said.

While the collection is great the history behind this tradition is even greater.

“It was a shared experience between my mom, my sister and I and the customers. I may have bought the first teapot and told the story that started it all...but everyone still calls it...Rose’s Teapot Collection, that’s my mom. She talked about Westside to EVERYONE, everywhere,” Debbie concluded.