For Ben Denham and Ashley Lloyd, crafting a Michelin-worthy restaurant is not a once-in-a-lifetime experience. After winning acclaim at White Lily Diner, the couple’s new Uxbridge farm-to-table bistro, Sundays, has landed both a Bib Gourmand and a Green Star in the 2025 Guide.
Nearly a decade into their success, the couple stunned Toronto’s dining scene by selling their beloved Queen Street restaurant to focus on the 10-acre organic farm they’d moved to in 2020. By 2021, they were growing their own produce and had transformed White Lily Farms into a full-fledged business supplying restaurants and buyers.
“We were exploring and always wanted to grow organic produce, and we had a bunch of time on our hands (with the pandemic) and figured now was the time,” says Denham.
In 2024, when a buyer expressed interest in the business, Denham and Lloyd seized the opportunity to focus full-time on the farm and their long-term goal of opening a new restaurant.
“One thing we missed being up here was the kind of restaurants that we were used to eating at in the city,” he says. “We figured we are not the only ones.”
Just a few months later, the couple was back in the hospitality game, opening a new restaurant on Uxbridge’s main strip in April. They named the neighbourhood spot after how they describe their menu.
“The best way I could describe it is coming to the farm on Sundays,” Denham says. “That’s literally the only day that we didn’t have staff, and we weren’t delivering vegetables or working at the restaurant, so it was the day we always had friends over and we cooked these meals. We’d walk in the field, collecting what we’re going to eat for dinner, and cook simply farm-fresh food.”
Serving up farm fresh food is exactly what happens at Sundays, where nearly 100 per cent of the produce comes directly from their farm. In fact, this summer, Denham and Lloyd grew 142 different crops.
“It’s an obsession. We’re both obsessed with food, and once you start growing all these things by putting a little seed in the ground, there’s no stopping an out-of-control chef,” says Denham. “We’re not writing a menu and then trying to source the ingredients. We’re doing it backwards from what everybody else does. We’re taking the ingredients first, then applying it to proteins from neighbouring farms and what makes sense and fills the gap in the menu.”
For protein, Sundays focuses on sourcing from other local farms, like Thunder Ridge Bison Co. for the tartare and duck liver from King Cole Ducks in Stouffville.
Like the food menu, the drinks rotate regularly, drawing inspiration from the farm’s local produce and featuring inventive cocktails alongside small-batch Ontario and international wines.
Brick walls, wooden floors, and framed photos create a homey, country feel with classic vintage vibes just a short drive from the city. Like Denham and Lloyd’s previous establishment, Sundays is, as Michelin notes, “the kind of place you could visit every week and never tire.”
“We feel very blessed to be mentioned in the same sentence with some of these restaurateurs, chefs and sommeliers,” Denham says, referring to this year’s Michelin Awards. “I’ve always bought from small organic producers my whole career, but the opportunity to become your own supplier feels like a gift that shouldn’t be taken for granted. I’m always in a happy place being able to do this. It’s really a privilege.”
Sundays is located at 58 Brock St. W., Uxbridge. For reservations, click here.
