The Tambo returns to Welsh family

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Ownership of an iconic Prince Edward County business has found its way back to the family of longtime owners.

Kevin Welsh purchased The Tambo store in West Lake in late 2019 and opened the doors for business on March 7, with the hope of returning the popular business to its former glory.

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Welsh’s father, Paul, a County native, left his job at General Motors in Oshawa after purchasing The Tambo in 1972. They ran it for the next 33 years before selling in 2005. Now his son has taken over the reigns with an eye on catering to the locals.

“Let’s face it, summer is always an extremely busy time in this area but the tourists disappear when the cold weather comes, so we need the local people to support us over the winter,” Kevin said. “So far it’s been amazing. This little store has a huge inventory and people are coming in here everyday, which we really appreciate.”

The store has been in existence since the mid-1930s when the Stewart family owned it. Combining the names of their dogs Tammy and Sambo to come up with the well-known name.

“This is the oldest gas station in the County and I know the people here really appreciate having gas available close to home and not having to travel into town to fill up,” father Paul recalled. “I always tried to keep it with two cents of town prices and people didn’t mind paying a couple of cents for the convenience.”

The elder Welsh recalls having to hire as many as 18 teenagers in the summer months because the store and snack bar were so busy. Ice cream cones accounted for a lot of his revenue.

“The thing I learned about hiring the teenagers is you can’t have them work more than five hours at a time and they have to have days off in the summer,” he said. “I only closed three or four days a year back then and, in the summers, I would have people lined up here at nine o’clock at night still looking for ice cream cones — there was nowhere else to go. I would put in some long, long days, which was okay for me, but after five hours the kids’ minds would start to wander a bit and they needed to go home.”

Kevin recalls standing on a milk crate when operating the cash machine as a youngster.

“It was so busy around here in those days,” he said. “I loved working in the store and seeing all the people come and go.”

With the store back in the family, Kevin and his wife, Angela, have their own ideas how to put their own stamp on it.

Homemade pies and fresh baked daily have been flying off the shelves and when traffic picks up they will be sprucing up the menu of the snack bar.

“We’ll be making funnel cake and other deep-fried goodies for people once the summer traffic gets going,” he said. “There’s lots of things we can make here that people will love.”

It hasn’t been all easy since the March opening. Welsh said with COVID-19 precautions he’s busy wiping down the store after each customer exits the store. The price of gas also hit the new owner in the pocket.

“I just got my (gas) tanks filled up and the bottom fell out of the (oil) market and the price dropped 30 cents a litre,” he said with a chuckle. “Yes, that one hurt but we’ll get by it soon enough.”

Without question, the family is eager for the pandemic to end and the tourism traffic to return to the County.

“The Sandbanks brings a lot of traffic by here in the summer, so it will be nice when that opens up,” he said. “I know it will be good for business, but (our son) Cooper has some health issues, so we are not going to sacrifice safety to get more business here.”

The Welsh family has close ties to one of the country’s most famous beaches.

Paul’s great-grandfather, Herb Cooper, owned much of the current site before before being approached by the province to sell portions of the beach to establish the park.

He says many things have changed since he opened shop many years ago.

“Heck, I can remember when Mike Sheba was the only person living on Sheba’s Island,” he recalled. “When I sold the store there was at least 40 houses over there.”