Steve Belfiore, with son Drew (top), representing Grafton Grill & Crust and Mooving Cow (ice cream), and Nikki Hewey and Stacey Bernard from Post Office Pub, were among food establishment personnel taking part in Gazebo Palooza on September 17th. The event was a fundraiser for the fifth annual Small Stones Festival of the Arts (SSFA).

 By ROD LEE

Steve Belfiore was probably just being modest or maybe it was because he and son Drew were busy serving food at the Gazebo Palooza to benefit the Small Stones Festival of the Arts on September 17th; either way, his description of the family’s Grafton Grill & Crust restaurant was low key.

“We’ve been in business six years, and two years with Mooving Cow, our ice cream,” Mr. Belfiore said.

“We’re an American grill, fish, burgers, apps, and wood-fired pizza.”

This only tells part of Grafton Grill & Crust’s story; and it’s an interesting one.

Upon relocating to Grafton fourteen or so years ago, Steve and Lori Belfiore wanted to take advantage of Steve’s passion for food, which had manifested itself from the age of fourteen when he was shucking clams at a small oyster house in Woods Hole.

More recently, he had worked in the corporate wireless industry for Sprint, AT&T and Radio Shack. Lori had previously been employed with Bose in advertising.

Both were keen on seeing “a Boston-type restaurant” establish a presence in Grafton. It was, in their view, the only thing missing in their adopted community. They were initially thinking of a bagel shop, pizza or an upscale burger eatery.

When the property that had been known by various names—The Wonder Restaurant, Sebastian’s and Bridge Street Bistro—went up for auction and didn’t sell, it was “now or never,” the Belfiore’s say.

Grafton Grill & Crust has thus found a home at 10 Bridge St. in North Grafton

More restaurants, 

dearly missed

Lawrence Bonetti of Uxbridge wrote this in an email on September 12th, in response to the previous week’s Feisty Fork column lamenting once-popular restaurants in the Blackstone Valley that are now long-shuttered and seemingly abandoned:

I read with interest your article about restaurants that have closed in the area. I would like to add two more.

NV Café (N. Uxbridge)

Besides the good food, this place was famous for the tombstone erected at the front entrance, dedicated to the 1946 Red Sox and their famous loss to the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series.

Kites Restaurant (S. Grafton)

Famous for their steaks.

[I am] not originally from the area, but I have visited all of the places mentioned. All gone but not forgotten.

News for The Feisty Fork? Contact Rod Lee at [email protected] or 774-232-2999.