LOCALE Restaurant & Bar opens

Photos by Barry Wallace

The much anticipated LOCALE Restaurant & Bar opened, to a full house, last Tuesday evening, in King City.   Situated in the former Crawford Wells General Store, at the four corners of Keele Street and King Road, the grand opening was very successful.   Read the review that follows, below, from one very satisfied diner who obviously enjoyed herself.   The opening has been keenly anticipated by many King Township and York Region residents, especially those who have already sampled the food and cooking from the take-out section, which opened earlier this year in the summer.   Take-out service resumes in January.     

LOCALE Restaurant & Bar joins the Paper Crane sushi restaurant next door and Hogan's Inn across the street, in a three-way dining experience that I  have decided to call the King City Triangle.   Overnight, the centre of King City has become a hot dining destination for all of York Region.   My wife and I are eagerly anticipating our first visit to LOCALE and it will be very interesting to hear the reviews of local customers.   Menus are published on-line for the curious.   Following is a review by a reader of this blog who dined at LOCALE on opening night:   "Locale is now OPEN!   My family dined there on opening night which was Tuesday...it was fabulous!   The place looks amazing and the food and desserts were outstanding!   My family had the lamb shank on polenta, spinach pappardelle with wild boar ragu, lobster rice balls,  and the best wild mushroom salad that I've ever had!   We had Locale's chocolate cake for dessert along with their fried dough with chocolate expresso dipping sauce.   Need I say more?   We are so happy they are open...owners are lovely and King City residents.   The place was completely full and they managed to get our dinner out in great timing!   Such a nice tribute that they placed the  name CRAWFORD WELLS GENERAL STORE est. 1863 in the window frosting...I didn't even notice it on the way in but my husband pointed it out on the way out!   Very nice touch and much appreciated for those of us that loved it!   Sandy and family"   Locale is open for dinner seven nights a week.   Lunch service , which begins Tuesday, December 18th, is open from Tuesday to Friday.

Photo from Elizabeth Gillham's Early Settlements of King Township

LOCALE Restaurant & Bar is located  in the 150-year-old building that was  built about 1863 by Benjamin Lloyd and operated as a general store.   The building was eventually taken over by Crawford Wells in the early-to-mid-1900s and continues to be known to this day, by many, as Crawford Wells - General Merchant.   The old Crawford Wells sign is now gone of course and LOCALE is set to make a name for itself.

Here's how the landmark Crawford Wells store looked earlier this year before its reincarnation into LOCALE Restaurant.

Please comment if you wish.

Barry Wallace