Forage restaurant in Little Stonegate reopens in York

As The Press reported last month, Forage at 2-4 Little Stonegate ceased trading after nearly two years, but the restaurant is now back open again having been bought by Tokyo Industries.

Tokyo Industries is an established business in the city, having opened 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 means an end to a period of uncertainty for staff who had no warning about the closure.

The Forage exterior (Image: Supplied)

"What's nice is that Tokyo Industries are a big company, but Forage will still keep that independent feel and very little will change. It will still be a small concept menu which will change every month," said Alex.

"It's been a very worrying time for staff here, but Tokyo were very keen to get us back open and it's all happened quickly as the closure happened without notice and nobody saw it coming.

"There's a real sense of relief and excitement as they have retained most of the staff, including head chef, Keiran Duffy.

"Because things have turned around very quickly we don't have a website up and running as yet, but people can come into the restaurant to book in person at the moment."

Inside Forage

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

The restaurant, features head chef Kieran Duffy - formerly of Le Cochon Aveugle and Roots - and takes its direction from middle eastern cuisine, with much griddled and barbecued fare.

Part of the restaurant's ethos is also to be as sustainable as possible with many locally-sourced foods and foraged ingredients.

The menu changes monthly (Image: Supplied)

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

The restaurant employs about 19 people with Alex saying they hope to expand on that number in the future.

Currently it's open on week days for food from 12 noon-9pm and until about 11pm for drinks and on a weekend 12noon-10pm for food on Saturdays and later for drinks and on Sundays from 12pm-9pm.

A ribeye cooked over fire (Image: Pic supplied)

The restaurant was highly rated by diners, with TripAdvisor rating it top out of five fusion restaurants in York. It is also 58th out of 585 York restaurants.

Out of 359 reviews, 294 were excellent, 23 were very good, 22 were average, 12 were poor and just 8 were terrible, with a 4.5 star average.