- by Kathy Cummings and Herald staff
The Toronto Day’s Committee recently announced Carlene Hall and Shirley and Gary Fishel as the Grand Marshals for the 2025 Toronto Days festivities. As owners of Lizard Lips Grill and Deli at Country Junction, located at the junction of U.S. Highway 54 and KS 105 Highway, the trio has lived and worked in the community for the last 34 years.
In early 1992, Hall and her friend Linda Geffert were working in Texas at Modern Manufacturing and Hall saw an ad for a business located north of Toronto on U.S. Highway 54. Hall was familiar with the area as her father grew up in Rose. Hall wanted to move closer to her father due to his health.
After meeting with a small business development company, Hall and L. Geffert put the plan in motion to start their business. Soon, Glenn Geffert, L. Geffert’s brother, joined in their adventure.
The trio of Hall, G. Geffert and L. Geffert decided to contact Hall’s sister and brother-in-law in Washington to come build a large walk-in cooler. When the Fishels arrived in Toronto to visit and do the work, they liked the area so much they decided to stay.
When asked how/where they came up with Lizard Lips for the name of the deli here is the answer: “When we bought the store there was a lizard in the basement somehow. I couldn’t catch it so I got the minnow dipping net to catch the little booger. One evening after work we were sitting at the table brainstorming an image for T-shirts. One of us asked do you think lizards have lips and the story was born,” Hall said with a hearty chuckle.
G. Fishel worked for the City of Toronto for eight years as a maintenance man and S. Fishel was the City Clerk for Toronto.
When Hall was preparing for surgery in 2009, S. Fishel quit her job to work at Lizard Lips Grill and Deli to help Hall out during recovery. It was during this time that L. Geffert left and G. Fishel joined Hall and his wife.
“We’re glad to be here. People are like family,” said Hall. S. Fishel added, “It’s been fun watching, through
years, as families come in with their little kids and now those little kids have little kids of their own.”
Hall also said, “When we were little girls they loved to play ‘Store’. Now, we are living our dream,” she added. Looking forward to the holiday weekend, Lizard Lips will be open from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday, as to their closing time on Thursday and Sunday, “We’ll play that by ear,” said S. Fishel.
Regarding future plans, the trio said they were going to keep providing good food and other necessities such as milk, eggs, fish bait, gas, and diesel to their customers. Lizard Lips is located at 153 US-54 in Toronto. For more information regarding the convenience store, call 620-637-2384.
Photo courtesy of Kathy Cummings
