About a year ago, a new restaurant and marketplace opened in Aurora.
Frank’s Organic Garden and Marketplace is named after one of Aurora’s best known citizens – Magna founder Frank Stronach. The unique restaurant and market has built a growing customer base of people in search of quality, all-natural foods and a delicious dining experience. Experienceyorkregion.com reached out to General Manager Ray Urban to find out more about Frank’s and see how things are going a year after opening.
By Wayne Doyle
Experienceyorkregion.com: How did Frank’s Organic Garden come about? What’s the backstory?
Frank’s Organic: Frank Stronach is a believer that the number one priority in life is to stay healthy. When we become sick and weakened by illness, most of us would give everything we own for a chance to be healthy again.
Frank’s philosophy is to truly embrace a diet of all-natural, organic foods. That is why he decided to create Frank’s Organic Garden Restaurant and Marketplace, where all food and products are certified organic. All our meat is sourced from100% organic, pasture raised, freerange animals that have been raised without hormones, antibiotics, or GMO’s.
XYR: How involved is the company namesake?
FO: Frank is involved in the day-to-day operations – everything from menu creation and recipe refinement to planning expansion to other parts of Canada. He is always looking for the “WOW” factor when it comes to all elements of the marketplace and restaurant. And he does all that while tending to his other projects and companies.XYR: What will make Frank’s Organic Garden successful?
FO: Our unique product offerings and approach to helping people better their lifestyle through food education. We create our meals from scratch, in-house. Our marketplace carries a variety of organic produce and products. We only source from thoroughly inspected farms and produce suppliers that share our all-natural food philosophy and adhere to the highest standards. Even
though this took a long time, we wanted to build proper relationships with our vendors and farmers so we could ensure we were getting the highest quality foods at the best prices for our customers.
XYR: How do the two businesses – marketplace and restaurant – complement one another?
FO: Most of the delicious foods enjoyed at our restaurant are available in our marketplace. Patrons can purchase either the raw ingredients we use, ready-made meals to heat and eat or take out. The restaurant and marketplace operate as a single unit, complementing each other and giving our customers the convenience of being able to dine and shop at one location.
XYR: How have consumers reacted? Is it what you hoped it would be?
FO: We’ve received overwhelming support from the community and the reviews customers leave speak to the quality and consistency of our products. We’ve worked hard to build a loyal following, and our enthusiastic patrons share their feedback frequently, so we’re able to learn what they want and then meet their expectations.
Frank’s Organic Garden Restaurant is located 15 First Commerce Dr., Unit 1, Aurora, ON L4G 0G2
franksorganicgarden.com
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Wayne Doyle is the manager of marketing and communications for the York Region Arts Council. Wayne is always looking for great stories to share with readers of experienceyorkregion.com. If you’ve got a York Region story to tell, contact Wayne: wayne@yorkregionartscouncil.com
