Rick Janson Art Studio

I first heard about Warkworth when I bought a painting by Lucy Manley from a craft fair in Cobourg. A plein-air painter, Lucy regularly paints around central east Ontario, including Warkworth, where she gives continuing education classes in painting. Our picture was from a winter scene in a residential part of Warkworth.

We travelled to Warkworth yesterday for two reasons. The first being the long lunch, a special block-long dining experience along the main street (pictured above), the second being a butter dish. There is also an antique store — Weekenders Vintage — that has a decent offering of well-priced vinyl records I had planned to sneak off to, as usual.

Warkworth is part of the broader municipality of Trent Hills, which has a total population of about 14,000 residents. Yet visitors regularly flock to this little community in part for the regular festivals they host as well as the arts and crafts profile. It’s fun. We asked one shop proprieter what they did in the off season? It turned out that they only have one quiet month over the winter, then the traffic of visitors starts to pick up again.

We had just been there in July and had discovered Frantic Farms Gallery just around the corner from the main street. We recognized the pottery on display (along with glass and other hand-crafted items), having bought a tea pot in that style years ago from the Meta-4 gallery in Port Perry. My spouse really liked the design of a butter dish on display, but preferred one in a lemon pattern that was in use for a tea set we saw that day. It turned out the person behind the counter of the gallery was Monica Johnston, who makes the pottery on the premises. She offered to make us one. We agreed to return (Warkworth is a little over an hour from where we live) in August to pick it up.

Communities often look for the magic formula that will bring life to their town or city. Warkworth has that magic in its energetic shops and galleries. There are no chain store outlets here.

Our neighbours had offered to drive when we suggested coming along, and we had gone cross country through a stunning countryside to get there. You can get there a few minutes faster by taking the 401 then heading north from the Big Apple (Colborne), itself a unique Ontario destination for visitors with its apple-themed shop and bakery. However, the extra few minutes was well worth it.

Given we arrived early, we decided t visit the shops first, checking out the European Patisserie before moving on to the Cheeky Bee gallery (where we found some crazy books) then on to an amazing kitchen-ware shop that offered a range of utensils, dishes and foods, including a jar of Sour Cherry and Prosecco jam imported from the UK (I had some this morning). They also served coffee and treats. As we made our way along the street the small bags we, um I, was carrying expanded. We eventually found our way to the Centre and Main Chocolatier.

We were a bit stunned when we walked in the door. As another patron there had said to us, “it looks like a frickin’ art gallery.” That was true. The lighting was subdued, and on the back wall were dozens of varieties of chocolate bars, some of them award-winning, including the Blood Orange and Rosemary bar, which was among the varieties we purchased. The patron who spoke with us said he relied on the shop to find unusual gifts for friends and family. Our friends bought some sponge toffee covered in milk chocolate. We bought four unique bars of chocolate. Everything on display was made on the premises.

We walked back up the other side of the road, the afternoon getting on and the need for food growing. I ducked into the antique store and got some records, including a 1976 Michel Pagliaro recording featuring three classic hits. I noticed that the lava lamp I saw last time was gone, but they did have a plasma ball that exudes what looks like lightning. The food offerings on the street were limited by the time we worked our way back up again — much of the blackboard erased at a booth where my spouse got a maple hot dog — but people were also going into the restaurants to bring out food to experience the huge communal dining experience. I chose to have a pulled beef sandwich with horseradish. We were also aware that we needed to get back to the pottery and glass studio to pick up the butter dish. Our friends also purchased a cream and sugar set.

We’ve been to Warkworth a number of times over the years, and always enjoy our visit. We caution our guests that it is not big, but it is a worthwhile visit.

And it all started with a painting.

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