Where to eat, drink, and explore in Ontario’s laid-back Kawartha Lakes hub.
By Jesse Ship
Set where the Otonabee River threads through Ontario’s Kawartha Lakes, this easygoing city of red-brick storefronts and waterfront parks is anchored by the Trent-Severn Waterway’s Peterborough Lift Lock – the highest hydraulic lift lock in the world – and ringed by conservation land. But the real draw is what’s on the plate and in the glass: a compact downtown and surrounding county that punch well above their weight in breweries, wineries, and farm-to-table kitchens.
Where to Eat
Peterborough eats far better than a city its size has any right to. On the corner of Hunter and Water Streets, St. Veronus Café and Tap Room has been the stalwart since 2002 – an Antwerp-style “brown” bar in a former Victorian bank, named for Saint Veronus of Lembeek, the Belgian-born patron saint of brewers. Moules frites and roasty Brussels sprouts with red pepper pesto are fixtures, rotating plates like Flemish meatballs arrive simmered in sweet-and-sour Rodenbach ale, and the beer list runs more than 100 deep; owner Roland Hosier has spent two decades championing Belgian beer in Ontario, work that earned him a knighthood from the Belgian Brewers’ Guild. Twenty minutes north in Lakefield, Cheeky Duck Vineyard is the county’s destination table: Welsh-born, Michelin-trained chef Josh Keepfer and his wife, Chas, run a farm-to-table restaurant where Indian Runner ducklings roam the vines as pest control – and, eventually, as a main course – and the largely Mediterranean menu catches its smoke from open-hearth flames.
Back downtown, Love You, Mean It turns locally sourced ingredients into low-key fine dining with unexpected twists. Owen Walsh came up through Sam’s Place Deli – the Peterborough sandwich landmark still worth a stop for a house-smoked Reuben – before he and Sam opened the room; order the beer-braised beef cheeks if they’re on (they proved so popular they had to come off the menu), or the juicy chicken marsala, a mainstay for a reason.
Where to Drink
The county’s drinks scene rewards a designated driver. East of downtown, 100 Acre Brewing Co. spreads across exactly that – 100 acres of licensed green space with a skateable winter pond, the passion project of founder Bentley Vass, whose love of German and Eastern European beer gardens is written all over it. Brews like the Snapper IPA and Minnow light lager wear wildlife watercolours on their labels and lean on local ingredients such as tart haskap berries; pair one with a wood-fired sourdough pizza from on-site Lowlands Fire Food. And yes, you can grow grapes in the Kawarthas: in the rolling Bailieboro valley, Rolling Grape Vineyard pours low-intervention, cool-climate wines – a funky Marquette, a crisp, mineral Seyval Blanc, an edgy Frontenac orange, and a surprisingly drinkable bourbon-barrel-aged Chardonnay from winemaker Jon Drew – alongside wood-fired pizzas, tacos, and generous charcuterie on a sun-warmed patio.
What to Do
Work up an appetite first. The Peterborough Lift Lock, a National Historic Site on the Trent-Severn Waterway, still raises boats nearly 20 metres (65 feet) in twin water-filled chambers – ride it aboard a Liftlock cruise or simply watch the engineering unfold. Paddlers can put in on the Otonabee River, while day-trippers head out to the ancient Indigenous rock carvings at Petroglyphs Provincial Park or the underground passages and hiking trails of the Warsaw Caves Conservation Area. If you make it up to Lakefield for dinner, detour past the campus of Lakefield College School, the storied boarding school whose alumni include Spain’s King Felipe VI and actor Will Arnett.
Where to Stay
Base yourself downtown at the Holiday Inn Peterborough-Waterfront, a cozy 153-room hotel a 10-minute walk from Hunter Street. The rooms are modest, but the lazy-river setting makes it a destination through peak summer and early fall: kids splash in a heated pool with an outdoor section while parents claim a spot at the riverside patio bar, live music drifting over the water at sunset.