About FireHouse Gourmet everything you wanted to know but were afraid to ask... In April of 2006, David and Anna Russell, along with Dave’s sister, Judy Campbell, opened FireHouse Gourmet with the goal of bringing spicy specialties and gourmet ingredients to the good people of Peterborough. With Toronto, the most multicultural city on earth, only ninety minutes away, it seemed reasonable to expect a plethora of international flavours to be available in the Kawarthas. However, that was not the case. FireHouse Gourmet was formed with the idea of supplying Peterborough residents with the fine cooking ingredients that Dave and Anna were searching for themselves. Since its inception, FireHouse Gourmet has become a hub for chileheads, gourmands, and true barbecuers. It’s the Hottest Shop in Town! One of our greatest resources, not to mention the bread-and-butter of our business, is our customer base. Many of our best selling products were brought to us in the loving grasp of a customer. To serve our loyal fans as best as possible, we constantly seek out quality products and spread the word about the latest tastes and trends. It may sound cliché, but our customers are the reason we are in business. Simply. FireHouse Gourmet offers Spicy Foods for Fire and Gourmet Ingredients to Inspire! , The Rest of the Story... (warning, it’s a rambling tale) FireHouse Gourmet was born out of a singular quest for hot sauce in Peterborough. David Russell was the man on that quest. A shop dedicated to all things spicy was his vehicle. The Lovely Mrs. Russell, Anna, and his gullible sister, Judy, were his wing men, ahem, wing women. In a previous life, David and Anna owned a home decor and gift store outside of Seattle, Washington. That’s a story for another time. Dave had a dream, one among many, to sell a few varieties of hot sauce out of that store, perhaps from the back room. He relentlessly pitched the idea of opening Dave’s Backdoor Meltdown Store. Sadly, that idea was lost among the detritus of life: babies, pets, car repairs, house payments, laundry. There always seemed to be some distraction, like earning a living wage, to get in the way. In 2003, David convinced Anna to move from the Wet Coast to Dave’s hometown of Peterborough, Ontario, “to be closer to family” and raise their kids in a family friendly town, a decision that was heavily influenced by the glowing portraits of an idyllic life blooming with familial bliss, painted by dear sister, Judy. Seemed like a good idea at the time. The least thought through plans often do. They moved their babies, pets, car repairs, laundry and a large assortment of other distractions along with them. Dave and Anna had grown accustomed to the easy availability of spicy specialties and gourmet goodies in their former dwelling place, as well as the wide assortment of hot sauces that catered to the growing Latino population migrating up the Pacific coast. They also missed affordable wine. Darn good affordable wine. And great seafood, too. ‘Cept for mussels. The PEI mussels are way better. Well, some things you have to leave behind to truly appreciate. To Dave and Anna’s delight, the burgeoning megatropolis of Peterborough sported a tantalizing array of scrumptious eateries and thirst quenching watering holes. To David’s dismay, however, it did not offer any semblance of spicy condiments. None. C’mon, Franks’s Red Hot does not count. So after a lengthy period of mourning the unavailability of good hot sauce, David declared to The Lovely Mrs. Russell one afternoon, “We should open a gourmet food shop specializing in hot sauce and spicy foods!” Beer was involved. Anna replied, “OK,” and set upon making the arrangements and filling out the paperwork. Similar to when Dave declared, “We should move to Canada!” “O.K.” Arrangements Paperwork (In case you’ve missed it, the foremost truth in life is that behind every good man there is a great woman. Heck, women can give birth to babies so every single one of us owes our life to a woman. Simple truth.) After a lengthy search for the Perfect Location, Dave, Anna, and Judy found a retail space in the homey Peterborough neighbourhood of East City, just a stroll across the bridge from downtown! 73 Hunter Street East, next to Sullivan’s Pharmacy. Ample free parking. Wide sidewalks. Reggie’s Hot Grill… mmmm, freshly grilled burgers.  Here’s where the circle of life comes into play. (If you’re not a Peterborough history buff, you can skip ahead to the next paragraph.) You see, Dave and Judy’s family has longtime East City ties. Their mom grew up on Parkhill Road across from Nicholls Oval, the park named for their family’s ancestor, Charlotte Nicholls, the same gal responsible for donating the properties upon which said park, City Hall, Civic Hospital, and Jackson Park were created. And moreover, Hunter Street serves like a personal timeline for David. As a boy, Dave and his Grampy Russell would walk from his grandparents’ home on the corner of Brock and Stewart Streets, next to what is now Hutchinson House, to Sandy’s corner store on Hunter Street West. Dave’s uncle, Ralph Dallin, once owned a business located in the old Hardware Store on Hunter Street between George and Water Streets. It’s now the site of Maggie’s Garden, a terrific breakfast and lunch spot that features FireHouse Gourmet hot sauces. All the way over the bridge in East City at 53 Hunter Street East is Ashburnham Foot Care. In a previous incarnation, Dave received many a brush cut from his grandfather, Cliff Jackson, who operated a barber shop at that location for thirty years. A mere half block further along that same street, David now runs FireHouse Gourmet. His family has longtime ties to Mark Street United across the road at the corner of Hunter and Mark Streets and several relatives lived on Mark Street. That’s just a short jaunt from Nicholls Oval and Parkhill Road. And there’s the circle of life. You can walk it in under an hour. A lifetime in an hour. Amazing! In the accumulating years that David and Anna have run FireHouse Gourmet, they’ve stumbled upon great gourmet foods, met quality producers and suppliers, made terrific friends, and enjoyed the varying taste profiles of their customers. Dave and Anna love what they do, love food, love cooking, love people, love being small business owners, love working side by side, and they hope that those passions are evident in their store. FireHouse Gourmet is a work in progress, responding to the the requests of its customers and reaching ever forward towards the fulfillment of its owners’ grand aspirations. FireHouse Gourmet comes to the rescue by saving palates in Peterborough, one taste bud at a time. It is food for the soul. So, in the words of the late Paul Harvey (conservative nutbar commentator that he was), “...and now you know the rest of the story.”    RETURN TO INFO, HOURS, DIRECTIONS GO TO STORE PHOTOS & VIDEOS  HoursDirectionsContact.htmlPhotos_%26_Videos/Photos_%26_Videos.htmlshapeimage_2_link_0shapeimage_2_link_1

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FireHouse Gourmet  ·  73 Hunter St East  ·  Peterborough, ON  K9H 1G4  ·  705.741.5181  ·  info@firehousegourmet.ca


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