Lakeside Lark on Highway 41

There is not much food available along the 40-kilometre stretch of road on Hwy. 41 between Cloyne and Denbigh. The exception is a restaurant on the west side of the road between Bon Echo Park and Brown’s Campground, at the very north end of Mazinaw Lake.

Then Lakeside Lark opened last summer, and they are into their second season now. The breakfast/lunch restaurant focusses on “cooking everything from scratch” as co-owner and head cook Kiersten Batsford puts it.

And she is serious when she says “from scratch” because that includes home baked bread, cookies and pies, and extends to fresh cut fries, pulled chicken, and throughout the menu.

“We are trying to get established, which has been difficult because this location had been closed for a few years,” she said.

This year, Kiersten, and her husband/business partner Eric Abrahams, painted the entire interior of the restaurant and attached small convenience store.

The Lakeside Lark menu features standard breakfast sandwiches, hand held pita sandwich for drivers, and a traditional full breakfast menu, all available all day long. And the coffee is a special blend from Madawaska Coffee, a roastery in Barry’s Bay.

The lunch menu includes all the classics: burgers, fish and chips, sandwiches, and more, and of course, the fries, which are cooked in canola oil in their own dedicated fryer, making them completely gluten free. And the potatoes? Only Russets.

One of the Lanark Lark specialties, Poutine, is made with homemade gravy and cheese curds.

Lakeside Lark serves Kawartha Dairy ice cream, and while the selection of ice is modest at the moment, once they get their larger freezer operational, they will have the full range.

On weekends they have specials available, and are considering extended their hours

(which are 9am-4pm) into the supper hour.

This weekend the specials include: Friday, two kids hot dogs $5 and Fish and Chips 1pc $15, 2pieces $22; Saturday Burger Combo $16; Sunday, Egees Benedict and Eggs Florentine, $19. All prices include tax!

Kiersten and Eric moved from Toronto to Harwood Lake, located off Hwy 28 on the road from Denbigh to Bancroft, in 2018. They started up a wedding venue/catering business at their property, which was picking up a lot of momentum, but it all came to a screeching halt when COVID hit. Fortunately, Eric still works in Toronto as a sound engineer for CTV. He works a week or two at a time, and the comes back to Hardwood Lake, but has been working more over the last few months due to the World Cup.

When Eric and Kiersten learned that location of the restaurant was available, they jumped at the chance to get back in the food business.

Now over a year in, they are looking to expand their business and are making their restaurant available for community groups, meetings, family events, etc.

With Kiersten’s background in catering, they can handle any request that comes their way.

Look for Lakside Lark on Facebook or contact them at [email protected] or 416-554-9137