MASSTOWN, N.S. — For David “Howdy” Brown, the Double C Truck Stop is a reminder of a bygone age.
“It’s the last of the old diners where you can stop and come in and have a meal, plus it always was a top-notch place,” said Brown as he sat down for a hamburger sandwich. “There’s just not a better place to stop.”
Brown knows his roadside restaurants well, having hauled goods from the Atlantic to the Pacific, criss-crossing Canada and the U.S. in a career spanning decades.
Presently, Brown sticks to the Maritimes and was on his way to Newfoundland when he showed up at the Double C, where he finds a rare sense of community with the staff and his fellow truckers.
“The hospitality of the staff and everyone here is just awesome,” said Brown.
The Double C’s simple formula of friendly service and fresh food has earned them a spot as one of Peterbilt Atlantic’s top three diners in Atlantic Canada, between Edmunston’s Grey Rock and Aulac’s Irving Big Stop in New Brunswick, in the company's survey of Eastern Canada drivers.
Such pride is what drives cook Karen Rector every day, as she serves up hot and fresh homestyle dishes from scrambled eggs to steaks.
Customers credited
She credits her workplace’s success to the customers-turned-friends who stop by their Hwy 4 location for daily meals.
“That’s what made us what we are today,” said Rector. “The small businesses … always get sort of run over and the bigger ones come in, but you know what? We’ll just do it every day.”
One regular customer is local Deanna Martell, who sat down for a snack of tea biscuit.
“I feel great,” she said. “It is a great place to come and it helps to up your spirits every day.”
For Debbie Cock, the Double C has become more than just a restaurant in the 21 years she has run it with her family.
“The truckers feel at home here, they’re not just customers to us,” said Cock. “Now, we’ve known them for so long, they’re part of our family. We have one truck driver who had a birthday party Sunday in Mt. Uniacke. There was a bunch of us down to see him and we saw a lot of the ones that we always have here and it’s great to see them out of our environment.”
Both Cock and her customers say the fresh food produced from scratch is what brings people back. Turkeys are cooked fresh every day and a baker comes in at 4 a.m. to make the restaurant’s own bread on-site.
Cock said some of her pastry dishes like butterscotch evoke fond childhood memories for older customers in their 70s and 80s, whose grandmothers once made it for them.
“I say it’s probably the same recipe, because it was from my husband’s great-great-grandmother and it’s made entirely from scratch.”
