The campaign includes selling a new authentic Hoito pancake mix, and a pop-up online merchandise store.
Development of the pancake mix has been underway for the past few months in partnership with Thunder Bay s Big Lake Pasta. We started with the original pancake recipe from one of the former Hoito head cooks, but that recipe is meant to make batter for hundreds of pancakes, says Finlandia Co-op interim president Paula Haapanen.
She said Big Lake Pasta owner Andrew Murchison has been an enormous help to find the right balance so that the pancake will taste and feel like the one you get at the restaurant.
It is with heavy hearts and deep sorrow that we announce the peaceful passing of our mother Beppina Rassat (nee Giuseppina Battigelli). On April 14, 2021 at the age of 93 at Pioneer Ridge.
Beppina was born on November 4, 1927 in SanTommaso, province of Udine Italy. She immigrated to Canada in 1957 to be with her oldest sister Anna Yoller. She met Alfredo Rassat at the Finlandia Club while out with her best friend Aurelia. A few months later Alfredo proposed and they married in September 1960.
Beppina started working at the Prince Arthur Hotel in 1958 as a dishwasher until she learned the English language then she began her cooking career. Her two highlights while at the hotel, although she had many, was cooking for the Queen in 1973 and then Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. In the early 80’s she was approached by the president of the Italian Centennial Hall Mario Nucci to come cook for the hall.
THUNDER BAY - The historic Bay Street Finnish Labour Temple will maintain much of its outside façade, but renovations are well underway on the inside that will see some big changes.
Brad McKinnon, the new owner of the building, said the interior has been completely gutted, bringing it back to the original frame and foundation in the basement to prepare its transformation into apartments.
“One of the biggest challenges we have seen with this building is the multitude of renovations that have happened. It’s an old building. It’s 110 years old,” McKinnon said.
“Over the years, decade after decade, different things have been done to the building. Getting back to the original foundation and the original framing was very important for us. Trying to reconstruct a building while keeping an old shell and heritage aspects, trying to add spray foam insulation, new wiring, new plumbing, update the heating system. We are trying to make the building as efficient and safe as possible,
THUNDER BAY The Finnish Labour Temple is not as imposing as the grain elevators along Thunder Bay’s waterfront, nor as well known as the Sleeping Giant peninsula, an immense rock formation that juts out into Lake Superior.
Yet the two-storey red-brick building that houses the Hoito Restaurant is an equally important symbol of the city. After 100 years of continuous operation in the heart of the Thunder Bay’s historic Finnish quarter, it still attracts a regular clientele that spans generations. It also serves as a popular destination for tourists and for politicians looking for hands to shake.
Speaking at a staff party in May to celebrate the Hoito’s centenary, Paula Malone, who’s worked there for 31 years as a server, credited the restaurant’s longevity to a loyal following. “The customers are the key factor,” she said. “The regulars keep coming back.”
COVID-19 leads Thunder Bay s top stories of 2020
The coronavirus changed life in Thunder Bay, but a pair of trials also drew nationwide interest this past year.
Jan 1, 2021 11:36 AM By: Leith Dunick
THUNDER BAY –There’s no question 2020 will go down in infamy. It was a tumultuous year, to say the least.
A pandemic swept the world, killing more than 1.8 million people around the world. The killing of George Floyd brought Black Lives Matter to the global forefront, with protests spilling into the streets of Minneapolis and across the planet.
Wildfires threatened to destroy Australia, heightening the climate change concern, and the U.S. election, pitting incumbent Republican Donald Trump against lifetime politician Joe Biden of the Democrats, is still be contested by Trump, despite losing by seven million votes.