Almost every account of when Quehl’s Restaurant & Catering began comes with an asterisk — and Cindy Larsen has finally sorted out why.
“Every advertisement I had, and when we first bought it, said it started in 1931 as a restaurant,” said Cindy, who owns Quehl’s alongside her husband, Brian. A recent deep dive into the building’s history, done by a local researcher, revealed the fuller story: the original restaurant did open in 1931, but next door, before moving into the current building in 1936 — a space that had previously served as a car and implement dealership. Cindy and Brian took ownership themselves in 1996, adding their own chapter to a building that’s worn several identities over the decades.
Cindy’s path to Quehl’s started on a farm a mile north of Shakespeare, where she grew up before working in Stratford hotels, studying business marketing, and later working at a Best Western in Kitchener. She and Brian both knew they wanted to own a business, and spent time searching properties across St. Marys, Woodstock, and beyond. A chance connection — a local egg supplier who delivered to the Best Western — pointed them toward Tavistock and Quehl’s restaurant — a place Cindy remembered visiting as a child growing up on the farm.
What Quehl’s has built since spans well past the dining room. What began as a “U” shaped lunch counter, grew into a 250 seat family restaurant with a gift shop and catering, and now includes a growing focus on takeout and delivery.
Ask Cindy what she’s proudest of, and she doesn’t point to the menu first — she points to the history. “I would have to say the history,” she said, describing conversations with longtime locals about how the region’s diversity took shape, from wartime church sponsorships to families arriving from around the world and, in the process, shaping local food traditions, with many of the recipes handed down and still used today, by seasoned local culinarians, trained on local products, some of whom worked for Quehl’s as catering staff. That same instinct for rootedness carries directly into how Quehl’s operates today. “Making sure that we buy local, support local, and hire people who live in our area.”
After thirty years in business, there have been plenty of situations well outside their control. SARS, COVID, road closures — Cindy counts these among the hardest lessons of ownership, precisely because a restaurant’s bills don’t pause when circumstances do. “People don’t realize that when you close this road, it makes a huge difference,” she said.
That experience shapes the advice Cindy gives to anyone starting out: grow slowly, and stay humble. “I would start small, and grow,” she said, listening to customers, and to employees to know what people want.”
Succession is already underway at Quehl’s. The Larsens’ eldest daughter is set to take over the business, while her sister, a dairy farmer, will contribute to marketing and menu development. That farming connection has already proven useful — with a 250-seat restaurant too small to compete with major chains for supplier allocations, Quehl’s now sources Angus beef directly from their daughter’s farm to keep more of its supply chain local.
For Cindy, none of it would matter without the community around it. “100% the people,” she said, when asked what she loves most about doing business in Rural Oxford. She recalls a recent tour group from Germany, in town to visit local dairy barns, marvelling at how well-kept and beautiful the area is. It also reshaped how she sees Oxford County’s agricultural identity. “It is about farming. It is about agriculture. It is about what we produce.” She points to small moments as proof — a local organic supplier recently dropping off twenty pounds of heirloom tomatoes — and to the generational workforce, current staff that are the children and grandchildren of those who worked in catering before them.
Quehl’s draws visitors well beyond Tavistock, from Toronto, London, and Sarnia, many of them coming specifically for the building’s history — including, currently, a historical society researcher documenting the role the local rail line played in growing the community.
The restaurant also services private bus tours and large group bookings that can run 50 people or more. Orders and reservations typically come in by email, with phone-ins preferred for time-sensitive company catering.
Nearly a century after its first doors opened down the street, Quehl’s continues doing what’s kept it going all along: staying rooted in the community it serves.
Cindy and Brian are honored to be part of the lineage of owners that have each placed their stamp on Quehl’s.
Quehl’s Restaurant & Catering
Cindy & Brian Larsen
33 Woodstock St S, Tavistock, ON
East Zorra-Tavistock Township
Established 1931
(519) 655-2835