Jennifer McKnight has owned the Harbour House Grill in Lefroy for the past decade, attracting locals as well as clientele from the boating community.
Situated inside Lefroy Harbour Resorts, the restaurant boasts its calming lake views, lively entertainment, and locally sourced food and drink.
But it wasn’t always a ‘hot spot’ destination, says McKnight.
When she showed interest in purchasing the Harbour House Grill almost 10 years ago, she was met with skepticism.
“We were told that this place for years wasn’t good,” she said “It looked like a bad cafeteria.”
But she had a good feeling about the place and was able to prove the nay-sayers wrong.
McKnight comes from an extensive culinary background, having worked in many restaurants over the years, from mom and pop shops to fine dining.
She grew up in Wasaga Beach and got started in the industry at just 12-years-old, working as a dishwasher, with dreams of one day becoming a chef.
She had her own fine-dining restaurant in Collingwood but was forced to close after the 2008 recession, which brought her to Lefroy.
Before investing in the Harbour House Grill, she worked at the neighbouring eatery at Monto Reno Marina and worked hard to build up its clientele.
“We grew it to insanity, where I had to sleep out of a boat,” she said. “It went so well, it was great, it was awesome."
Eventually, she took over the Harbour House Grill just down the street, and ended up owning both restaurants for two years as well as a neighbourhood ice cream parlour.
Business at Harbour House Grill was growing so rapidly that she decided to sell the Monto Reno restaurant and ice cream shop to focus on one restaurant.
“It’s grown every single year since,” she noted.
It wasn’t until the pandemic and the recent reopening of the economy that McKnight had second thoughts about her line of work.
“With COVID it’s been a monster,” she said.
She typically closes in the winter, but due to COVID, she decided to keep open this year. In January and February, she mailed out fo 10,000 flyers to area residents to advertise her take-out menu and had a good response from customers.
“They supported us and are coming to see us for the first time," she noted.
She is grateful that she was able to adapt to online ordering throughout the pandemic in order to serve customers and says she feels sorry for some mom-and-pop shops that were unable to do so.
“If I didn’t adapt to the online portion, I don’t know if I’d still be here,” she said.
She had her staff at Harbour House Grill all hired in April but didn’t know when she would be able to reopen for dining.
“It's like you’re at a starting line and trying to be organized and prepared and then you’re ready to go, and then you have to go back,” she said.
In April, the restaurant was doing so poorly business-wise, McKnight was ready to close up shop, but knowing summer was just around the corner, she persevered and stayed open.
Once restaurants were finally permitted to reopen for patio dining, she went from a staff of under 10 to 40 in less than a week.
It was an overwhelming reopening, training staff who were working their first-ever jobs, and serving customers who had been locked down for the past year.
“It was in the first three weeks of opening, I for the first time in my life didn’t want to do this anymore,” she admitted.
Not only were customers expecting exceptional service at a time when staff was still new and training, but food suppliers were dealing with shortages, forcing McKnight to look at other options to fill orders.
“It's so hard for the economy going from zero to open,” she said.
To help accommodate the shortages, she started looking at local businesses for menu ingredients.
“It’s something I've wanted to do for years,” she said, adding that the pandemic has forced her to do so. “Ninety-five per cent of the menu is locally sourced.”
One of McKnight's favourite part of her job is the bonds she forms with her staff.
“It’s fulfilling,” she said. “The biggest thing I’ve gotten out of this whole thing is over the years seeing the young staff, it’s their first job, seeing them doing very well later in life.”
She says former staff often reach out to thank her for the experiences they gained while working at the restaurant.
“That brings me butterflies,” she said.
It’s that feeling that kept her going after a long, hard pandemic lockdown.
“I think that it’s made me a better business person, if I can get through this I can get through anything,” she said.
Despite a rough few years, including the passing of her father earlier this year, McKnight is happy to be back stronger than ever, getting back to some sense of normalcy with both patio and indoor dining, and weekly entertainment.
On Friday, Aug. 6, rock and country band Tattoos N' Whiskey will be playing, featuring music from their latest album 'Wastin' My Time'.
Harbour House Grill is located inside the Lefroy Marina, at 727 Harbour St., Lefroy. It is open to the public seven days a week at 11:30 a.m. for lunch and dinner, and 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday and long weekend Mondays for breakfast.
To check out their menu, and see their entertainment schedule visit their Facebook page here.
