Lost In A Forest pizza restaurant in Uraidla announces sudden closure

One of the most popular restaurants in the Adelaide Hills has announced its sudden closure, effective immediately.

Lost In A Forest at Basket Range

One of the Adelaide Hills’ most popular restaurants has closed “with a heavy heart”.

Cult pizza restaurant Lost In A Forest, in Uraidla, said it had shut its doors from New Year’s Day in a post to social media.

The restaurant and wine bar – renowned for its wood oven-fired pizza – is housed inside an old church in Uraidla’s main street, which was placed on the market late last year.

St Stephens Church, which was built in 1892, is still for sale with a price range from between $1.65m to $1.8m.

The mushroom pizza at Lost in a Forest.

In the post, owner Charlie Lawrence said it had been a “spectacular ride with many ups and a few awful downs”.

And he said it wouldn’t be the end of “innovative pizza” in Adelaide, with something new coming soon.

“A journey of 7.5 years that started life as a ‘hobby’ for Charlie Lawrence and Taras Ochota and then with Nick Filsell (as chef) coming on board to add legitimacy to our crazy project,” they wrote.

“There aren’t enough words or photos to encapsulate the legacy we built over those years. A legacy of great pizzas, delicious local vin and loud no apologies 80s tunes.”

The annoucement has prompted an outpouring of comments, thanking the team with people on Instagram saying they were “deeply saddened” and the restaurant had been a “key part of the renaissance of Uraidla”.

On Facebook, Cristina Blefari wrote how sad she was her favourite pizza spot was closing, while Julie Cocca said it had particular significance because she had been married there.

The post said the team had “proudly began the resurrection of the Uraidla township”.

“A little piece of paradise in the Adelaide Hills and along with the Uraidla Hotel, we carved out a niche that locals, city folk and people from around the world have grown to love.

“Many a late night was spent enjoying an ‘orange wine’ with diners, staff and ‘Friends of the Forest’. The stories these walls could tell will forever be cherished by all that visited, worked and played here. A place that I’m proud to have been a part of, watching many of our amazing team grow, learn and embrace all that we loved ‘up the hill’.

Lost in a Forest at Uraidla has closed.

Charlie Lawrence outside his pizza shop New York Fold in the BRKLYN bar in Rundle St in 2019. Picture: AAP Image/Brenton Edwards

“We’d love to thank everyone who found themselves at a wonky handmade table and enjoying what we put out into the universe.

“It’s been a blast! But this won’t be end of innovative pizza in Adelaide. There will be something coming very soon. Until then, much love – Charlie Lawrence and the Forest team.”

The restaurant was well-known for rule-breaking, delicious and creative pizzas, its minimal intervention wine list and 90s alt-rock playlists – and even earned praise from British chef Marco Pierre White as “the best pizza I’ve had in my life”.

It was started by rock star Basket Range winemaker Taras Ochota with Lawrence. Ochota died in 2020 after a long battle with illness, his death announced by the frontman of US rock band Tool, Maynard James Keegan, with whom he’d made wine.