KAWARTHA LAKES-Samena Kennedy began bussing tables at the Fallsview Restaurant in Fenelon Falls at the tender age of 12 years old. It was there she caught the foodservice bug.
“We were here for two years and one of my mom’s friends was an employee at the Fallsview and I was looking for something to do for the summer.” Kennedy told Kawartha 411. “She suggested coming and bussing tables and doing dishes and getting my feet wet in this industry.”
Kennedy (Smith at the time) and her family moved from the Unionville/Markham area to Fenelon Falls when she was ten. They had cottaged on Sturgeon Lake for years and fell in love with the area.
It was at the Fallsview she fell in love with the restaurant business.
“It was a love hate with this place. The first owner that I ever worked for was Manfred Becherer, he has since passed. He was a really really hard man but deep down there was something that was really special and really passionate about this business.” Kenndey explaines. “There are some friendships that I made here that have turned out to be life long friendships for me and I like the idea of being able to come home really and truly and that there’s so much history in this building, it just seemed right.”
Now at the age of 44 Kennedy has returned “home” to Fenelon Falls and the restaurant that started it all. She’s taken over the old Fallsview and is opening her third location of “The Locker”.
“I’m excitedly back in the same building and back where things originally started for me. I have a personal and emotional attachment to the building and to this entire transition it has a lot of sentimental value.”
After working in the industry for years Kennedy first purchased her own restaurant, The Locker, in Cannington in 2015. In 2016 she was awarded the contract for food and beverage for Cedarhurst Golf and Country Club. The Fenelon Falls location will be the third for Samena and her husband Brian.
The Locker at the Falls is a family restaurant, featuring good, solid comfort food according to Kennedy. The menu offers all the staples and also things that are a bit different. Most of the food is home made.
” 95 % of the menu is made in house, we know what we are putting on our plates. It’s been made from start to finish by our chef’s.” Kennedy says.
The menu changes every 6 months based on seasonal foods but some favorites will always remain.
The restaurant is located right beside the falls and has an outdoor patio overlooking the water.
“This building has a lot of history. We have one of the best locations in town but it needed an overhaul and we’ve done that.”
The inside has been completely renovated and there’s a new lower level dining room that feels like you are practically sitting under the falls.
“I don’t think its actually hit me yet but when we open the doors it will hit me as to the magnitude of what’s happened over the last 30 years.”
They are hoping to open next week.
