Hungry for nostalgia, P.E.I. customers are once more lining up for Peter Pan hamburgers

When the popular Peter Pan Drive-In takeout in Charlottetown closed its doors in 2013, customers likely figured they'd never again taste the burgers and fries they'd been accustomed to getting there. 

But now there's interest in reviving the nostalgic brand and its food.

"I remember going in and trying it back in the day," says Adam Loo, chef-owner of Ada Culinary Studio in Charlottetown, speaking with CBC's Mitch Cormier for the This is P.E.I. podcast.

"We said, if we're going to do a simple burger, let's do one of the ones that everybody really knew and loved. So we started the journey of connecting with the family to see if we could bring back the Peter Pan for a day." 

A few weeks back, Ada saw customers line up for 45 minutes on a freezing night to taste its interpretation of the classic burger. Staff ended up cooking 750 of them. 

Despite the raging success of the pop-up Peter Pan burger basket, Loo said Ada Culinary won't be repeating the experiment. 

"We're on to the next thing. We think there's lots of stories out there, and yes, it was successful, but it was about sharing the story and having that opportunity," he said.

"There's a lot of other stories out there, so we're going to chase the next one."

'It was just very well-loved'

The Peter Pan was born in 1958 under owners Doug Hill and Bill Beer before being purchased in 1975 by Kenny Jones, a regular who ate at the restaurant frequently. 

"I basically grew up at the Peter Pan," Jones's daughter Carla remembers with a laugh. "Every weekend I'd be working, as a teenager, and I used to say to my dad, 'I'll never work in a restaurant.'"

When she was 12, she recalls her father paying her five cents to fill up little paper cups with coleslaw, to go in each burger basket.

The steamed bun was the big thing.— Terry Robblee

"Back then, that was a lot of money," she said. "I saved for the first year when I was 12 and I bought my first bike."

For peak freshness, she said her father always ordered the ground beef for the burgers in bulk from a local butcher.

What is it that still keeps Islanders nostalgic for the Peter Pan? 

"I guess it was the good old-fashioned way you'd just go in, it'd be a little tiny restaurant, and everybody knew everybody," Jones said. "It was just very well-loved." 

'A lot of love for the Peter Pan' 

Back in 1985, Kenny Jones hired Terry Robblee to manage the Peter Pan. He and Carla are now married and own the Blue Goose restaurant in DeSable, where they have just started to offer the original Peter Pan burger basket one day a week. 

"My opinion? The steamed bun was the big thing," said Robblee, adding that he's ordered a steamer to make the buns perfectly. As well, "a lot of people like the red relish (known as hamburger relish), which we will have." 

Robblee said the Peter Pan had regulars whom he knew either by name or by their usual order. 

"You'd have a customer pull in the parking lot and we would know exactly what they were going to eat, so we would start and throw it on the grill and by the time they came in, we'd have it half cooked for them."  

Robblee said the takeout was a personable place to work and eat. 

The A-frame building at the corner of University Avenue and what's now Capital Drive was legendary.

"A lot of love for the Peter Pan there was — and I think there still is. It's missed," Robblee said. 

'I fell in love with the sign'

That A-frame building was torn down in March 2020. The last remaining piece of the restaurant is the sign, which sits in the bottom floor of a Holland College building in Charlottetown near Josh Silver, who runs the Heritage Retrofit Carpentry Program.    

"I think it's just an iconic piece of Prince Edward Island and Charlottetown history," he said. "We're just really honoured to have it here.

"I doubt I'm unique, but I fell in love with the sign the first time I saw it, and I just thought it was so beautiful," Silver said.

"To see that it's hand-carved is really important to me, and just a gorgeous colour scheme and layout." 

There's a lot of great stories, lots of first dates and great times around those burgers.— Josh Silver

Silver had been keeping an eye on the sign, which remained on the property for two decades after the restaurant closed, worried it would be tossed in the trash by a developer when the land was sold.

He got in touch with the property's owner, who donated the sign to the college for restoration and safekeeping.  

He said that when anyone sees the sign at Holland College, conversation is inevitable.

"There's a lot of great stories, lots of first dates and great times around those burgers," Silver said. "I just love it."