{"id":30454,"date":"2021-12-16T18:13:42","date_gmt":"2021-12-16T23:13:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=30454"},"modified":"2021-12-23T12:06:50","modified_gmt":"2021-12-23T17:06:50","slug":"graystones-serves-last-customers-after-56-years-in-aurora","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/graystones-serves-last-customers-after-56-years-in-aurora\/","title":{"rendered":"Graystones serves last customers after 56 years in Aurora"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

They wanted little fanfare; all they wanted was to focus on making sure the last meal they served customers this past Sunday night was the same quality meal they have come to expect over the last six decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Graystones, an iconic fixture on Aurora\u2019s culinary scene for 56 years, famed for its schnitzel and other Austrian-inspired delights, closed its doors for the last time on December 12 after the Wiedemann family decided to retire. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the one hand, the family felt it was time. On the other, it was a decision that might have been spurred by the difficulties experienced by all restaurants as a result of COVID-19. Regardless of the reasons, it was a \u201cbittersweet\u201d decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe really enjoyed working and we have wonderful customers,\u201d says the family of the restaurant which was founded in 1967 by Max and Anita Wiedemann, whose children carried on their legacy. \u201cWe have customers who brought their toddlers in, those toddlers became adults and brought their children in, we have customers who are third generation coming in here; it\u2019s cute when they say things like, \u2018My granddaughter wanted to come to The Graystones for their birthday dinner,\u2019 and you can\u2019t get a higher compliment than a child saying they want to come to your restaurant!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Graystones began life not as a restaurant with fare inspired by the family\u2019s Austrian roots. Rather, it was a rather more traditional diner which initially saw big clientele from the student body of nearby Dr. G.W. Williams Secondary School, which often come in for a burger and fries. It was a simple menu geared more towards Canadian tastes, but this shifted over the years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They added an outdoor beer garden \u2013 a first for Aurora \u2013 and they have the distinction of being one of the first local restaurants to receive a cocktail licence. Another first was the installation of the first colour TV at a local restaurant so regular patrons could watch hockey games in all their technicolour glory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Needless to say, Graystones has grown along with the community it has called home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou couldn\u2019t serve alcohol without a 50-cent sandwich on the menu,\u201d they recall. \u201cOn Sunday, you had to have a dollar meal or you weren\u2019t allowed a beer. Laws have changed and we have gone through a few transitions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Graystones was also famed locally for having one of the first outdoor beer gardens in York Region. Very popular at the time, it was a seasonal venture, and the owners ultimately decided to expand their dining room with a focus on indoor dining.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another focus was its transformation into a nightspot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They introduced a disco in the 1970s, which proved popular with students at Seneca College\u2019s King campus. As tastes changed, so did this space, and by the 1990s they had retooled their dance club space for the 30+ crowd.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was quite successful,\u201d they say. \u201cPeople came for a bite to eat and then go dancing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the dance club brought in more business and new clientele, this venture was always secondary to the food.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From its inception, \u201chomemade comfort food\u201d was always the focus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe started first with the wiener schnitzel and then introduced others,\u201d they say of the shift away from diner fare to what ultimately became one of their most popular signature items. \u201cWe always had our regular menu, but introduced a new dish to our customers [gradually] so they knew what it was. In the early 1980s, there wasn\u2019t such a variety of different restaurants as there are now. When we said \u2018wiener\u2019 they assumed it was a hot dog, but nowadays everyone knows what it is. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt has been through customers\u2019 comments that we narrowed down the menu. If someone said it was \u2018okay\u2019 it went off the menu. If someone said they really enjoyed it, then it stayed. You just have to watch people as to whether they like something or not. You always give the best you can.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that was very much the focus in their final week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen COVID came, we never anticipated it would take so long. We were closed for about six or seven months, then we tried to reopen with just take-out and that took off. We kept our same menu, we just adjusted a couple of things in how we presented it to our customers. When we announced our retirement, all of a sudden we got swamped. We have even had customers coming in with tears in their eyes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMost of our customers were like our extended family. We have had customers who celebrated birthdays, anniversaries, and family gatherings with us every year. All we want to do is make sure the last person gets the same good meal as the first person did. We also hope we gave some people happy memories and mini-vacations over the years as we always say a nice dinner out is a mini-vacation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir
Editor
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They wanted little fanfare; all they wanted was to focus on making sure the last meal they served customers this past Sunday night was the same quality meal they have come to expect over the last six decades. Graystones, an iconic fixture on Aurora\u2019s culinary scene for 56 years, famed for its schnitzel and other […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":30445,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/2021-12-16-02.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-7Vc","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-14 13:40:49","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30454\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}