'A walk down nostalgia lane': Sonny's fish and chips return for one day only

It was a busy day at Morty's Pub on Good Friday as people flocked to the Waterloo hot spot to get their fill of fish and chips.

For many, it was also a blast to the past, as the iconic grub was served up by those behind Sonny's Drive-In.

“When we found out that they were coming here, we just thought, yeah, we need to check that box one final time,” one patron told CTV News.

Morty’s Pub and Sonny's shared their collaboration on social media leading up to the Easter long weekend to serve Sonny's famous fish and chips one last time.

“About a month ago, Jay from Morty’s approached me about resurrecting ou Good Friday fish and chips,” said former owner of Sonny’s Paul Noussis. “I'm sure people missed coming to Sonny's for their yearly fix. 

"It's a limited menu with just fish fries, gravy. And if you're dining in, there's some drinks if you want to add to that. But we're just keeping it simple this year just to see how things went and maybe next year we expand the menu a little bit.”

“People are loving it, they're taking a walk down nostalgia lane and reminiscing about their great times they had at Sonny's,” said Morty’s Pub owner Jay Taylor. "Just by the sheer amount of orders we got, we had to stop taking them.”

After closing their doors in 2022, and facing demolition this past January, the legendary drive-in came back for one last hurrah.

“It was emotional,” Noussis said. “It was inevitable, you know, but this gives us a chance to kind of relive the moment.”

“You know, you miss something, and you relish in what was great and enjoy what they had and what it was meant for,” one patron said.

“It was just a nice iconic place to be, and it [was] nice to have them in the community,” another said.

Noussis says when he took over Sonny's over a decade ago, it soon became apparent how much the iconic fish and chips meant to the Waterloo region community, especially on Good Friday.

“Good Friday started to come in and those sales just increased yearly and yearly until they got it to where it was like it's the must have fish and chips in town,” he said.

One dollar for every piece they sold on Friday will go back into the community.

“It gave us the opportunity to raised a little bit of money for the KW Community Fund and give back to the community that has given us so much,” Taylor said.

Noussis says he is saving every last bite of nostalgia and comradery.

“Some things never die, you know, they just change a little bit, right?" Noussis said."If I can leave people with that, we still got more Sonny's to come, I think, over the next few years for sure. We get to give our customers, our loyal customers, another shot at having their famous fish and chips. 

"I'm thinking if it goes really well, which it looks like it is, we're going to try and pull it off next year as well.”