Landmark downtown restaurant Fionn MacCool’s has closed for the winter, laying off roughly 20 staff and leaving them “scrambling to find work,” said former restaurant staff.
The waterfront restaurant, located at 2 Front St. N., abruptly shuttered its doors Oct. 13 after providing staff with two weeks notice of the closure.
While staff anticipated changes were on the way – with hours, and programming like trivia night being cut – it came as a “shock” to learn the restaurant was closing, a move they were informed about at a meeting earlier in October.
The close-knit team of staff tried to find ways to reverse the decision, to no avail. The restaurant had not previously closed during the winter season.
“We basically fought that decision. We came up with a proposal with different ideas for them to change their hours … or get a pool table in there because there’s none downtown,” said another former staff member.
A temporary lay-off letter was distributed to employees notifying them the lay-off is seasonal in nature, and that staff will be recalled to work, as the layoff “will not last longer than 35 weeks within a consecutive 52-week period.”
A notice posted on the restaurant doors says it will re-open in spring 2025, but former staffers who spoke with OrilliaMatters said most Fionn MacCool’s staff are looking for new employment opportunities, and had doubts many would return should the restaurant re-open next spring.
“Everybody was very bitter at the end because they were guaranteed security through the winter and everything,” the former staff member said.
Former staff also expressed concerns about how the move will impact customers’ perceptions of the restaurant moving forward.
“We have a lot of regular customers,” the former staff member said. “We knew immediately the guests’ reactions were going to be (like) ‘Well, we’re not coming back after this because this is a slap in the face' – same with the staff.”
The Orillia location is one of several Fionn MccCool's in Ontario. Neither local restaurant management nor corporate ownership responded to multiple requests for comment from OrilliaMatters.
