The Paper Birch Restaurant

The "Paper Birch" Name When owners Steve and Tiffanie Itsou were searching for a name for their restaurant, they sought inspiration by researching the history of the area. They thought this was especially appropriate given that the building that houses the restaurant was built in 1825. While looking through some nineteenth-century records of local residents' memories of growing up in Chaplin, they became fascinated by the tradition of the birch tree harvest that so many people fondly recalled. A number of people who grew up in the Chaplin area in the 1800's recalled farmers driving sleds piled high with white birch wood out of the forests and through the town during the wintertime. White birch, often referred to in these records as "paper birch", was used in the local mills to manufacture a number of specialty products, most commonly thread spools. Some individuals even recounted riding atop the loads of birch wood as children and being whisked over the snow-packed roads. The old-fashioned term "paper birch" struck a chord with Steve and Tiffanie and so they adopted it as the name of their restaurant as an homage to a long-lost local custom.