Belong: in Sharbot Lake

Jeff Green | Oct 20, 2021

One of the iconic business properties, the restaurant overlooking Sharbot Lake beach, is undergoing another change.

It used to be Nickles, a convenience store with a lunch and baking counter. Then Giselle Beaupre did an extensive renovation and turned it into a restaurant, Grandma's Country Kitchen. Andrea and Steve Duggan bought it and opened Sunsets, before they sold it to Phil and Lorette Gray.

Phil and Lorette Gray had been running the Maples, a restaurant and Pizza business, for a dozen years or so. Although they did OK in 2020, all things considered, and were in the midst of a very busy summer in 2021, they were ready to sell the Maples and retire.

But who would want to buy a restaurant in 2021, a moment of uncertainty in an industry that was already in crisis before COVID stood it on its head, and in a village the size of Sharbot Lake?

The worst kept secret in Sharbot Lake since mid-August has been that the Maples was being sold to Brad Long, a chef from Toronto, sending people scurrying to Google to find out who he was.

Purchasing the Maples is another step in Brad Long's evolution from large to small scale cooking. For 20 years he was responsible for feeding over 20 million people at the Air Canada Centre and BMO Field. Before that, he rebuilt the food program at the CN Tower. Since then, he has opened Cafe Belong in the Brickworks complex in Don Valley Park in Toronto, a restaurant that is devoted to the connection between growers, cooks, and eaters.

When contacted last week, over the phone from Cafe Belong, where he expects to spend about 3 days a month now that he has moved to the Long Lake Road (he really likes the name of the road), Brad Long had a lot to say about the restaurant business and his commitment to bringing the “farm to table” food concept into practice.

“Three percent of restaurants in North America prepare food from scratch” he said, “3%. I actually don't denigrate fast food restaurants. People are on the move, they need something to eat, and it is there for them. It's not great, and it's not something that should be eaten all the time. But I don't appreciate all the restaurants in the middle, that are selling pre-prepared food with all the trappings of dining, the fireplace and the table cloths.“

His concept is simple. Pay a fair price for the best ingredients, mostly from Ontario and as locally as possible, pay a fair wage to the cooks he trains and employs, and make delicious food for his customers, at a fair price, not a low price.

He said that what COVID did for him, aside from making him change how he ran Cafe Belong because of social distancing, was to make him focus on his long term plan.

“If you've always had the idea to do something, COVID made you make a decision about whether to do it now, or let it go. For me, that dream I had about opening a farm to table restaurant in a small town was something I was really committed to doing, so it was like, why not now?”

It is a major change, but in some ways it is also a return for him. He has been living with his family north of Stouffville, well away from downtown Toronto, and his roots are in Port Dover, in Norfolk County, on Lake Erie. The opportunity to buy a business and a house nearby with land appealed to him, and his family, wife Sheryl and 5 children, the youngest being 13, were ready for the change as well.

The Maples closed late September, and the sale of the restaurant was finalised earlier this month. A crew has been working on a refurbishment ever since then. The kitchen will be completely re-equipped, but one of the features of the kitchen set up that attracted Long to the property, aside from the view of Sharbot Lake from the patio, was the layout of the kitchen, which will remain the same.

There are two kitchens with a dish cleaning pit in between them, and ideal setup for Long. He plans to have the restaurant ready for take-away service, a major aspect of the business, by January (ish). Patio service will follow in the spring and summer.

All of the food at Belong will be prepared fresh, and the menu will vary, with a focus on grilling, over deep fried preparation, but a lot of the details about what dishes will be served, and a marketing plan, will be determined by local circumstances, both from farms in the region and through networks that Long has developed over the years in Toronto.

And the food will also be focused on the local market. Eventually, set menu dinners, paired with wines and cocktails, will also be coming.