Williams Fresh Cafe is an upper-class fast food restaurant chain in Ontario, Canada. There are currently 37 locations, all of which are within Ontario.
The chain was founded as Williams Coffee Pub in Stratford, Ontario in 1993 by Bill Giannakopoulos and George Giannakopoulos. The restaurant was named for William Shakespeare, as Stratford is home of the annual Stratford Shakespeare Festival.
Dean Braund purchased a majority interest in the chain in 2006, and currently owns 80%, with the other 20% held by Kitchener-based Laurentian Capital. The current name and store format was phased in during 2009 and 2010.
The head office for the chain is located at 202 Grand River Avenue in Brantford, Ontario.
The restaurant features a mixture of over-the-counter and table service. Restaurant patrons place orders at the counter, pay immediately, and receive a numbered sign, which identifies them at their table to the server.
Famous quotes containing the words williams, fresh and/or cafe:
“just like you sitting
there they come and talk to me, just the same.
They come to bother us. Why? I said I don’t
know. Perhaps to find out what we are doing.
Jealous, do you think? I don’t know.”
—William Carlos Williams (1883–1963)
“For it does not follow because many books are written by persons born in America that there exists an American literature. Books which imitate or represent the thoughts and life of Europe do not constitute an American literature. Before such can exist, an original idea must animate this nation and fresh currents of life must call into life fresh thoughts along its shores.”
—Margaret Fuller (1810–1850)
“The train was crammed, the heat stifling. We feel out of sorts, but do not quite know if we are hungry or drowsy. But when we have fed and slept, life will regain its looks, and the American instruments will make music in the merry cafe described by our friend Lange. And then, sometime later, we die.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)