ELORA – Becky and Ardin Lalui wanted to give a piece of the Dalby House back to the Elora community.
The husband and wife team have opened up The Lobby Bar in the bottom floor of the historic 150-year-old flat iron building that sits at the top of hill on Metcalfe Street in Downtown Elora known as the Dalby House.
Historically, the Dalby House was a hotel and Ardin said there was a beloved bar. It had been used as an office space for the Upper Grand Family Health Team before being purchased by a new owner in August 2019 who worked to convert the building to include retail space and apartments.
The Laluis love the iconic building and went to see a space in it that was available for some time.
Already owners of The Friendly Society down the hill, they didn’t originally intend to open a bar, but rather have office space for Ardin for his work as a writer.
“It came like a blank slate and then I said ‘why don’t we just decorate it like a lobby bar because that’s your favourite place to work,’” Becky said in an interview at The Lobby Bar.
Eventually they decided to just go for it and make something for the public to enjoy.
“You get talking to people from the town and they’re like ‘oh wow what are you doing in there?’ and they want to be back in the space because they miss it being the Dalby House,” Becky said.
The look of the Lobby Bar is a unique one, thanks largely to the help of contractors. The space is right in the corner of the building, giving it a slim triangular shape, decorated with Gucci wallpaper featuring lions, ceramic sculptures, large mirrors and hand crafted tiles.
“It’s just kind of inspired by hotel lobbies, being transported to a different place, no specific place,” Ardin said.
“We wanted people to come in here and feel like they were somewhere else,” Becky added.
The food and drink menu is a bit different from the norm in Elora too, with a focus on asian-inspired dishes.
“We had a menu prepared and it was caesar salad, burgers and Becky at the last minute told the chef ‘there’s already that in town so let’s just do anything different’ and together they came up with the idea of doing Asian,” Ardin said.
While food is available, they said people are more than welcome to come in and just have a drink which are primarily cocktails, mocktails, wine and some beer, but none on tap. Similar to the food, they said they feel there’s already plenty of places for draught beer in Elora.
The space is also available to be rented out for private events, something they haven’t been able to offer at The Friendly Society.
“We can’t really stop the machine of The Friendly Society to throw parties because our regulars who look after us all winter are kind of left out in the cold, we thought this would complement that as well,” Becky said.
The Lobby Bar quietly opened about a month ago and so far they said the response has been positive and people love “the vibe of it.”
“People appreciate when a place is done right,” Ardin said.
With a busy tourist season ahead, the Laluis said they hope to be a hit with the locals by providing the same friendly experience as their other restaurant at a much loved building.
“The main thing about it I want people to know is that we wanted to give this space back to the town because it’s beloved and iconic,” Becky said.
