Life in a Fishbowl: Timmins restaurant has ambitious plan for growth.

• Author: Cowan, Liz
• Position: TIMMINS

Timmins sisters Louise and Lise Cantin started their restaurant business with only a desire to work for themselves - and two tables and four chairs.

As owners of the Fishbowl, never did they imagine, 35 years later, they would own three other restaurants, contemplate a hotel and consider franchising. "

Unhappy working as civil servants in southern Ontario, the pair returned to Timmins in 1976 and decided to open a seafood restaurant and take-out business.

"There was pizza, chicken and hamburgers in the city at that time," Louise said, "so we decided to do fish since no one else was doing it."

The sisters had no business background and no. restaurant experience, but they rented a corner store west of the downtown and served fish and chips, along with other fare, and also ran the convenience store. They split the day with Louise working from 6:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Lise working from 3 to 11 p.m.

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A chance encounter with an older British woman resulted in her sharing a fish batter recipe with the sisters and since that time, fish and chips have been the signature item on the Fishbowl menu.

Louise said construction workers building Timmins Square Mall and new residential homes in the west end provided a steady stream of customers when they first opened.

"We thought, maybe, if we had a real restaurant, we could do better," Louise said.

After a year, the sisters bought a house down the street which had no road access and no sewer connection.

"We didn't know any better, but we got the zoning changed, an access raod was built and we connected to the city's sewer," Louise said.

And in keeping with their independence, the sisters took on all the renovations themselves and converted the house into a 52-seat restaurant on Riverside Drive.

"We opened for breakfast the first day and that was the only day we did breakfast," Louise said. "Customers came in for coffee all morning so we never had a chance to get ready for lunch."

They later bought the land surrounding their restaurant and then built a new building in 1984 that provided 74 seats. Three years later, an addition was built and 66 more seats were added.

"My sister and I travel a lot and in 2005, we decided there was an opportunity for our concept since we noticed that there weren't many restaurants doing seafood," Louise said.

They focused on southern Ontario and found a location in Barrie. The building on Bayfield Street was constructed for another restaurant, but that...