When my wife and I purchased our home in Port Dalhousie, the quaint, lakeside community at the northend of St. Catharines, one of the greatest treasures we quickly discovered was Treadwell Farm to Table Cuisine.
The family-owned restaurant, owned by the father-son team of Stephen (dad, the chef) and James (son, the sommelier) Treadwell, opened its doors in 2006 and offered up a steady diet of superb locally sourced food and one of the finest selections of Ontario wines (and other hidden gems from around the world) anywhere.
It was pure heaven to hop on over to Treadwells and sit in the Snob Bar, on the patio on a summer’s day or main dining room and enjoy what Stephen was cooking and James was pouring.
So, selfishly, it’s sad for us that they are moving.
As of mid-June, Treadwell will close its doors in Port Dalhousie and open new ones in Niagara-on-the-Lake and begin a new chapter in Niagara.
Treadwell has agreed to a new lease at 114 Queen Street in Niagara-on-the-Lake this coming summer. It will continue to operate in Port until the move in June.
James says it’s an exciting opportunity to “build our dream kitchen” which will be open concept with chef bar seating for 12 guests. The patio will have seating for 40 guests while the private dining room will be surrounded by the new wine cellar (the one in Port Dalhousie is tiny).
The Treadwells describe the new restaurant a “more intimate space, that will be completely brand new and will allow us to better showcase not only the talents of our staff, but many of the terrific artisan farmers and innovative winemakers of Southern Ontario.”
In a statement, the Treadwells said:
“Although we are excited by these developments, we are sad to be leaving Port Dalhousie after seven fantastic years. The residents of the Port Dalhousie/St. Catharines community have been great supporters, and many have become our dear friends. We understand that this move will come as a surprise for some, but we sincerely hope to have continued community support as we move forward with a new, exciting opportunity.”
The Treadwells were approached by the landlord of the new building, who also own the Victorian Villas, and were enticed into the move to provide a top-notch restaurant in the heart of NOTL.
“We really are super duper excited but, honestly, sad to be leaving Port Dalhousie,” James told me today.
One of the exciting aspects for James is increasing the capacity of his cellar by 300%. The plan is to continue building on its strength of small, boutique wines from Niagara’s most exciting appellations.
The new dining room is smaller than what Treadwells currently has (40 seats compared to 90) but will have a larger patio and the chef seating with a window on the action in the kitchen.
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New winemaker for Ravine Vineyard
Ravine Vineyard announced that it was parting ways with its winemaker and vineyard manager, merging the job into one and handing the reins to Niagara-born Martin Werner.
In a press release, Ravine said “Martin will have big shoes to fill in replacing the departing team of Shauna White and David Beyers (who just won the Cuvée Award of Excellence in Viticulture), but he is looking forward to continuing an impressive track record of ultra-premium organic vine growing and winemaking, working with the continuing input of Peter Gamble, lead winemaking consultant to Ravine since the winery’s conception.
“With the positive growth since opening our doors in 2008 and the standards we demand, we are excited to see Martin come onboard to oversee the wines from vine to bottle as we grow into our new shoes,” said Paul Harber, brand manager and chef proprietor of Ravine Vineyard. “With our signature style of wines and discriminating level for quality in all aspects at Ravine, Martin is the natural addition to our family.”
Werner is a graduate of the Niagara College Winemaking program, and followed his ambition to make top-end wines by undertaking roles at such industry leading wineries as Cloudy Bay (New Zealand), Hillebrand (NOTL), Justin (California) and Hidden Bench (Niagara). He leaves his current position as head winemaker at the new Two Sisters Winery (NOTL) to take the reins at Ravine.
Said Werner: “My passion is to create wines in an artisan style, in small lots, a qualitative theme that is highly prized throughout the entire Ravine property. I love St. Davids Bench for the superlative grapes it grows, but also for the rich historical backdrop. Working to continue and enhance the legacy of this passionate family and their century-old agricultural estate, will be a dream come true.”
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Chef Crawford takes chef role at Redstone
I enjoyed an amazing tasting of the new single-variety wines at Stratus this week (reviews coming soon). The tasting was followed by a glorious meal prepared by chef/sommelier Ryan Crawford.
Crawford, former chef at the Stone Road Grille, cooked up some tasty treats, including a wonderful sweet potato and prawn bisque, smoked ham hock and caramel poached pear.
We were delighted to learn that Crawford is staying put in Niagara and will be moving to the Beamsville Bench area to take on the chef’s role at the new Redstone Winery owned by Moray Tawse.
Tawse winemaker Paul Pender confirmed the hire and said Redstone is still awaiting building approvals before it starts construction but expects to get what they need sometime this spring.
Redstone is in the Lincoln-Lakeshore sub-appellation (the old Thomas & Vaughan property). Tawse and his team will craft up to 5,000 cases of the bigger styles of red wines made from Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Syrah as well as more Riesling from a recent vineyard purchase, Chardonnay and Pinot Gris.
The winery will have a restaurant featuring locally inspired cuisine and an outdoor amphitheatre for summer concerts.
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Rick Mercer does Niagara
Canadian comedian and TV show host Rick Mercer and his crew taped a segment for CBC TV’s award-winning Rick Mercer Report at Niagara College’s Canadian Food and Wine Institute on Friday.
He spent the morning at the Niagara College Teaching Brewery, learning how to brew his own variety of beer from professor/brewmaster Jon Downing and students from the College’s Brewmaster and Brewery Operations Management program.
Mercer moved on to the College’s Wine Visitor + Education Centre for the afternoon. There, he not only got a lesson in pruning at the College’s 40-acre on-campus teaching vineyards, but learned about the process of wine-making at the NC Teaching Winery from assistant winemaker Gavin Robertson and students from the College’s Winery and Viticulture Technician program.
Mercer also sampled a selection of award-winning, student-produced wines and beers during his visit to Niagara College’s Canadian Food and Wine Institute, home to Canada’s only commercial teaching winery and first teaching brewery.
“We were delighted to welcome Rick and his team to Niagara College to experience the uniqueness of applied learning through our College’s beer and wine programming,” said Niagara College president Dan Patterson. “It was a wonderful opportunity for students in our Canadian Food and Wine Institute to showcase their learning experience to a national audience.”
The segment featuring Niagara College is scheduled to air on Rick Mercer Report next Tuesday.
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