Two chip stands have been duking it out for over 50 years in a small Ontario town

Though Shelburne, Ontario, recently made headlines for the burger shop battle that's been brewing there for over 30 years, over in Sturgeon Falls, it's two chip stands that have had a sizzling heated rivalry of their own for decades.

The humble chip stand — chip, in this instance, as in French fry — is one of those all-Canadian things that a born-and-raised Toronto resident doesn't even really know about until they dare to venture outside city limits.

Sure, we've got a handful of chip trucks that circulate the downtown core, but the chip stand as a whole, as a cultural concept, as a community pillar? You've got to travel along a double- or single-digit highway to experience that.

A perfect example: at the intersection of Highways 17 and 64, you'll find Sturgeon Falls; a town with a population of roughly 7000 that's known, aside from its prime location on the Sturgeon River and eponymous waterfalls, for its chip stands.

Two, in particular, have captured the attention and emphatic support of locals, thanks to the fact that they're located directly across the street from one another on the town's Main Street: a distance of less than 25 metres.

On the west side, Riv Chip Stand has been in business since 1973, churning out chips of an impressive golden hue alongside wings, milkshakes, burgers and beyond, all from its unmissable orange hut.

Owned and operated by six different families over the years, Riv is the epitome of a true local institution, but it's not the only one in a 25-metre radius.

On the east side of the street, Larry's Chip Stand has been in business for even longer than Riv, opening in 1953; though with little to no online presence, the rest of the Larry's story is a little harder to trace.

What's not hard to trace, however, is the fact that the Riv-Larry's rivalry, which is, by all accounts, a friendly and good-natured one, has become an inextricable piece of Sturgeon Falls lore. There's even merch for it.

In 2024, both chip stands found themselves in even closer quarters when the then-owners of either business put both stands up for sale at the exact same time, each for over $1 million apiece.

With new owners secured and over 50 years of coexistence under their belts, it looks like Riv and Larry's proximity is doing little to quell their mutual success. That doesn't mean customers aren't entitled to pick favourites, though, and my vote goes to whoever puts more cheese curds on their poutine.