The Forage restaurant in Little Stonegate is reopening in York

As The Press reported last monthForage at 2-4 Little Stonegate ceased operations after nearly two years, but the restaurant is now open again after being purchased by Tokyo Industries.

Tokyo Industries is an established business in the city and opened the Impossible Wonderbar and Tea Rooms in the former Terry’s building in St Helen’s Square in 2020.

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And Forage general manager Alex Hart said the news marked the end of a period of uncertainty for staff who were not warned about the closure.

The exterior of Forage (Image: Included)

“The nice thing is that Tokyo Industries is a big company, but Forage still retains its independent feel and little will change. It will still be a small concept menu that changes every month,” Alex said.

“It was a very worrying time for the staff here, but Tokyo was keen to reopen us and it all happened quickly as the closure was without notice and no one expected it.”

“There is real relief and excitement as they have taken on most of the staff, including head chef Keiran Duffy.

“As things have changed very quickly, we don’t have a website up and running yet, but people can come into the restaurant to make reservations in person at the moment.”

Inner lining

The company was previously owned by Callum Houston, a York-based entrepreneur who is also founder and director of events company Yorkshire Bartender and distillery The Yorkshire Explorer.

The restaurant, headed by chef Kieran Duffy – formerly of Le Cochon Aveugle and Roots – takes its cue from Middle Eastern cuisine and features plenty of grilled and grilled fare.

The ethos of the restaurant also includes being as sustainable as possible and using lots of locally sourced and home-grown ingredients.

The menu changes monthly (Image: Included)

The venue has just over 100 seats and the building was previously part of the Gusto restaurant chain, which closed in 2020.

The restaurant employs around 19 people, and Alex hopes to expand that number even further in the future.

It is currently open for food from 12pm to 9pm on weekdays and for drinks until around 11pm, on weekends from 12pm to 10pm for food, on Saturdays and later for drinks and from 12pm to 9pm on Sundays.

A ribeye steak cooked over the fire (Image: Image provided)

The restaurant received high reviews from guests, with TripAdvisor rating it as one of York’s five fusion restaurants. It is also ranked 58th out of 585 restaurants in York.

Of the 359 reviews, 294 were excellent, 23 very good, 22 average, 12 poor, and only 8 terrible, with an average of 4.5 stars.