Must eat here and things to do during grape and wine

You MUST eat here:  Frijoles in Niagara Falls located at 3465 Portage Road.  They hands down have the best fish tacos in Niagara.  The rest of their food is pretty great too.  Take a look at their menu. 

And it's Grape and Wine time of years again!!!

There are some great activities to take part of during this time.  

My favourite thing to do is partaking the Discovery Pass experience.  You get to pick 8 wineries from their list that you get to sample a wine paired with great food for just $40!  Niagara wineries do things like this lots throughout the year (I will share them!) and we make sure we do all of them!  A couple sample pairings are fresh ricotta fritters with bacon thyme jam paired with 2014 Private Reserve Baco Noir from Peller Estates in Niagara on the Lake and Twisted Kitchen Food Truck is serving sweet and savoury Moroccan braised beef stew paired with 2012 Red Twisted at Flat Rock Cellers in Jordan.

This is happening on Saturdays and Sundays of the next two weekends (September 19, 20, 26 and 27).

Find out more about the discovery pass experience and to view all the pairings click here, and enter code WC015 for $5 OFF at checkout.

The hub of Grape and Wine activities is at Montebello Park.  

There are lots of local chefs and restaurants providing food for sale and obviously wine samples too.  There is also live music there throughout the weekend:

Friday September 18th - Hotel California (Eagles cover band) at 7:20pm

Saturday, September 19th - All Ontario bands with the first starting at 1pm and the last at 7:45pm

Sunday, September 20th - Country Day with the first band starting at 12:30 and the last at 6:15pm

Friday, September 25th - Vinyl Flux at 6:30pm

and The Caverners Beattles Tribute at 8pm

Saturday, September 26th - first band starting at 1pm and the headliners Jonesy going on at 7:45pm

Sunday, September 27th - Country Day with the first band starting at 12:30 and the last at 6:40

Click here to find out more information about the band lineup.

And of course there is the parade which takes place on Saturday, September 26th between 9:30 am and 10:30am in downtown St. Catharines.

Most of the the wineries in Niagara also have events of their own going on during this time.  Check out your favourite wineries facebook page, as that usually holds the most information or check out wineries of Niagara on the Lake's website or wineries of Twenty Valley's website.

xo, Alysha

Going on in Niagara this week......Getting the last bit of summer in and Diner en Blanc

This was my Sunday evening, but more on that later....

Let's all get those last bits of outdoor summer activity in before it's all gone!

This Wednesday, and Wednesdays until September 16th go out for great food truck eats and local beer and wine at the Niagara on the Lake Supper Market from 4:30 until dusk.

This Thursday is the last Pelham Supper Market (starting at 4:30 and runs until dusk) and night at the Bandshell (7-9pm) with The Toronto All Star Big Band and The Mantini Sisters.  It also runs alongside the Pelham Farmers Market where you can pick up fresh fruits and veggies and lots of other goodies.

On Friday (4th) it's Elvis Presley night at the free Concerts on the Canal in Welland

On Friday (September 4th) as well, Chateau des Charmes is hosting Earth and Sky Film Night and will be playing Seymour: An Introduction and more info and tickets are available here.  They sell wine by the glass and gourmet snacks.

On Monday of this weekend (Labour Day - September 7th) they will also be hosting Earth and Sky Music Market with live music (Jane's Party), food trucks, local artisans craft market and wines by the glass and admission is free!

We also attend movies in the vineyard at Trius Winery usually throughout the month of June.  The best way to find out about all of these events is to follow them all on facebook.

What better way to end out your summer than outdoors in a beautiful vineyard!

This past Sunday we went to Diner en Blanc Niagara.  This is my fourth event of theirs that I have attended, and they all have been absolutely amazing.  Diner en Blanc is a pop up all white chic picnic party that started in Paris 27 years ago, and happens all over the world now.  You arrive at a predetermined destination with all your decorations and picnic stuff (or you can order it from them and it just shows up there!), and get on a bus and get delivered to the surprise location.  You set up your area, enjoy the views, have your dinner, play with sparklers, dance the night away to a live band and dj, and cap it off with a beautiful fireworks display.

This years was held at the absolutely beautiful Secret Garden in Niagara Falls with views of the falls.

Here are some more photo's of the beautiful event and of the scenery around us......

 

Make sure you get yourself on next year's wait list here.

xo, Alysha