Fare

Fare puts a Korean nacho skillet, a cut of AAA prime rib, and a plate of summer cannelloni on the same seasonal menu, and serves all of it inside a heritage hall on the grounds of a lakeside literary museum. Its own shorthand is modern plates, honest ingredients, elevated comfort — broader and more worldly than most small-city waterfronts deliver. The restaurant occupies Swanmore Hall on the Stephen Leacock Museum property in downtown Orillia, the only waterfront dining room in the city, with the terrace and much of the seating angled toward Old Brewery Bay and Lake Couchiching.

The kitchen rewrites its menu with the seasons, drawing on worldly flavours and Ontario produce instead of settling into a fixed lineup. What holds steady is the range. A single table can move from a shared bread board or charcuterie to mussels and scallops, from a tajín pork schnitzel or Korean nacho skillet to Fare-style brisket and fried chicken, with summer cannelloni and Asian arancini pulling the Italian and fusion threads through the middle. Lunch runs lighter from eleven to two; dinner opens at four-thirty and leans into smoked elements, handcrafted sauces, and the bolder plating held back for the evening. New menus arrive when the season turns, so the smartest order is whatever the kitchen is running that week.

Swanmore Hall spent years as a banquet hall before Fare took it over, and the conversion is the point. The heritage of the Leacock grounds sits in the background as context rather than costume: no literary theme painted on the walls, no gimmick built around the famous neighbour. Inside, the look is pared back on purpose, and the owners describe the dining room as minimalist, warm, and ingredient-forward. The waterfront position — one most Orillia restaurants cannot offer — carries the atmosphere a lesser place would try to manufacture with decor. The building supplies the history; the kitchen supplies the reason to stay.

Fare is the work of Sarah Butler and Kalvin Sherry, the owners local reporting named before the doors opened. The site had long been eyed as a chance for a destination restaurant that could finally make use of the setting, and the two took it on with a plan to run year-round rather than chase a single season. It is operator-led in a way a franchise cannot copy: two people accountable for one restaurant, building around local hospitality rather than a template shipped in from head office. They signed a five-year lease on Swanmore Hall, converted a former banquet operation into a full-service dining room, and opened on the Leacock grounds in 2023.

Drink gets its own attention. A list filed under Cellar and Cocktails runs alongside the kitchen, and Wednesdays become Wine Wednesday, with bottles at half price once the clock passes four-thirty. Cocktails and the cellar are treated as part of the evening rather than an afterthought, which suits a dinner built to unfold over a couple of hours instead of arriving all at once. The week is built in two shifts — lunch from eleven to two, dinner from four-thirty to nine — and on weekends the doors open early for brunch and coffee by the water. Reservations are taken online and hold a dining-room table in advance; the terrace stays first come, first served, left to anyone willing to gamble on an open seat over the bay when the weather turns warm.

That range is what keeps Fare from being a once-a-year occasion. A single restaurant absorbs a weekday lunch, a summer terrace table over Old Brewery Bay, a half-price bottle on Wednesday, and a private dinner in a corner of its own: The Side Room seats eight to ten, The Study holds about twenty, and the holiday calendar fills with private bookings, buffet and plated set menus, and wine pairings. Most Orillia restaurants compete on the food alone. Fare gets to compete on the food and the lake at once.