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The fire across the water on Saturday night.
Over in Williams Bay. The small apartment building on Olive Street (Olive Street Apartments) right near Daddy Maxwell’s Restaurant. The place partially burned with almost all the damage coming up through the walls and floors from the basement. The first rumors coming out of Williams Bay on Sunday, had the fire consuming Daddy Maxwell’s. Part of the good news (that Daddy’s is still with us) was all about how the owner and staff of Daddy’s handled the emergency.
Janette Maxwell, the owner, heard about the fire and reopened her nearby restaurant. She fed the evacuated residents and the fire personnel responding to the fire free of charge. Wow! What a woman! What a place! Daddy Maxwell’s is the bomb! What followed was even more impressive. Janette put up the displaced residents who could not return to their apartments at a nearby motel, gave them gift certificates to eat at Daddy’s for the entire month of January, gave them each a small amount of cash and then started a collection near the counter of the restaurant. Janette put up the residents of the six-unit complex at the Mill Creek Hotel in Lake Geneva (this woman does not do small or cheap). Mill Creek gave Janette a very favorable rate because of what she was doing to help. Lake Geneva and Williams Bay came together to do something generous and nice to start the new year and that was a wonderful start for so many involved.
Who is this woman, anyway?
Her father came to Williams Bay in 1987 and opened a breakfast nook restaurant in the shape of an igloo. The place got larger and more popular when people discovered that the food was outstanding, the service great and the prices low. The rest has been history but the greater history is happening right now and likely in the future. The conduct of Janette Maxwell, in taking up the mantle of leadership from her departed father, is and will likely be remarkable. The restaurant is larger and better in every way with the addition of her expressively brilliant management substance and style.
What has been demonstrated by her response to the fire crisis in Williams Bay over the course of the last few days is revealing a woman and a business built upon compassion, care, respect and the best of American business principles?
Daddy Maxwell’s, with Janette Maxwell as the very able CEO embodies what is finest about small business in America and in Southern Wisconsin in particular
If you feel in need of a great breakfast or lunch then Daddy Maxwell’s is worth the drive and meeting Janette is a personal must. This woman talks and laughs all the time and the most amazing part of that description is the simple fact that she’s funny and interesting in her expressiveness…all the time. The communities around Lake Geneva deserve to thank her for her leadership and her beneficent conduct so well demonstrated when others around her were and remain in great need. The entire staff of the Geneva Shore Report is going to Daddy Maxwell’s on Friday for breakfast and to dump as much money as they will be carrying into that contribution jar on Daddy Maxwell’s counter.
Hope you will be there to start this New Year in such a contagiously wonderful way.
Grandest Person
Awesome!!! Love to hear positive things from “home”. I grew up in Walworth, went to Big Foot High School. Went in the USAF in 1973/and haven’t been home much. The Saga of Daddy Maxwells and the generosity shone by Janette makes me proud to have the lakes area in my history!!
Really appreciate your input Wayne.
Be sure to stop by and visit with us on your next visit “home”.
It would be a pleasure to listen to stories from the past.
God Bless this lady…& Thank You!! 🙂
We all appreciate Janette Maxwell and the service to our communities Daddy Maxwell’s has provided, PLUS great food and friendly atmosphere. Thank you for your comment Patricia.
Share this post with your friends and all stop by the restaurant and “fill that jar”
We remember how nice Jeanette took care of Ron Pankau when his wife Carol was in the hospital for 12 weeks.
She made many meals for Carols husband Ron by sending many meals to his home while Carol was recovering from a broken neck and back from her fall down the stairs at home.
Thanks from all the Pankau’s for your kindness..Ron Pankau
Comment
Thanks for sharing your experiences, Ron.
It would be nice if all of us could help everyone in need,
but sometimes that is not possible
Myself and my Mother live in this apartment complex and I’m confused on why after 3 nights of struggling to find a place for my Mother to sleep..this is the first I’m hearing of any of this/did not receive any accommodations. Upsetting.
We all appreciate Janette Maxwell and the service to our communities Daddy Maxwell’s has provided, PLUS great food and friendly atmosphere. Thank you for your comment Patricia.
Share this post with your friends and all stop by the restaurant and “fill that jar”
As “regulars” at Daddy Maxwell’s, we have witnessed Janette’s generosity many times. She truly gives from the heart!
Everyone be sure to say Thank You to everyone and anyone who bestows Random Acts of Kindness on others.
One of my old “crazed” friends likes to talk about thing such as Random Acts of Kindness.
Here is an article he posted this past year
Random Acts of Kindness
I spent many a Friday night with my good friend Virginia Hasek (another remarkable woman who contributed to the community with her service) enjoying the Friday Night WI Fish Fry at Daddy Maxwell’s.
Janette has always been beyond generous of spirit. A truly remarkable woman with a huge heart. Thanks, for publishing this positive article about her.
Really appreciate neighbors giving kudos to where deserved.
Thanks, Gloria
Life is so much easier in a true Community
Actually, I just got off the phone with Daddy’s to inquire why, after reading this, my mother (one of the tenants currently displaced from her apartment because of this fire) was not offered any of this suppose cash, motel, or gift card for food? What I was told by Daddy’s was this…
“Janette’s collection was only help two families and the funds she collected have since been depleted.”
So what I KNOW is this, my MOTHER, and what I can only assume from simple calculations others, was never offered a motel to sleep, gift card to eat, or any small amount of cash to help her through this completely devastating and tramatic event. Also, no one from this website/reporter even talked to my Mother to fact check this story.
PLEASE CORRECT THIS.
Thanks,
A concerned Son
To the Kane family,
We report news we find.
The generosity of Janette Maxwell is unquestioned, and she, as do all of charitable hearts, reserve the right to limit their charity.
We at the GSR share Good News and Bad.
Janette Maxwell’s generous and unsolicited help deserved to be recognized.
Thank you for your comments.
Our crazy Janette…..you either “Love Her” or………..Her”……don’t see her for years (way back to The Abbey days) and when you do she remembers your name….greets you with a smile and loveable funny comment……..have heard so many stories about her….first to be one to help someone in trouble.
The food is generously yummerous….should be on TV’s Diners-Divas-Dives……part of her success
is the kitchen hidden Chef Marshall…..If you have never been there….easy to find in Williams Bay, Wi
on Hwy 67….look for that IGLOO…….STOP..STOP….enjoy…..I’m due to stop myself……
Great comment Roger,
Seems we might have created a local stir by getting the NEWS published without every piece of information known.
BUT we felt it relevant to praise the generosity of another gracious business person in the Lake Geneva region
The Geneva Shore Report has been notified that the originator of Daddy Maxwell’s was not Janette’s father, it was her father-in-law.
Any trouble this factual error created is sincerely apologized for.
Yes I have been there.