🏨 The Strewn vote is Tuesday. Here's what you need to know.

We just had the "Dinner with Friends and Family" food experience with Sandy. We had no idea what to expect. And wow, we had no idea cooking healthier could be this delicious, simple, and easy. We left inspired, wowed, and full.

Are you looking for ways to get dinner on the table faster, tastier, and healthier too? Sandy offers a full food and "gourmet" health experience in the comfort of your kitchen (or hers): a fun, educational "Tastedrive." Where wineries offer tastings and tours, Sandy offers a genuine five-course meal, cooked in front of you, with no oil, no water, and no oven. It's an evening that doubles as an education in how to maximize your health, your time, and your money.

The food is the argument. The cake she made us was almost hard to believe: moist, delicious, and out of a 1-quart saucepan in under 15 minutes. By the time she finished explaining it was a diabetic-friendly, heart-smart cake, it was already done. No oil, no water, in a cake. Guests fill out a short questionnaire beforehand (dietary needs, dessert pick: chocolate or apple upside-down cake), so the evening is built around who's actually in the room.

Tickets are $20-$40 per couple depending on menu choices, credited toward any purchase if you decide to invest in a Rhineland Knife or Saladmaster griddle/skillet. Spots are limited.

BOOKING BONUS: The first 5 to reserve a seat receive a free 7" Santoku Chef Knife, just for booking. (Gift, stacks with your ticket credit.)

☀️ Good morning NOTL. Here's what's in today's issue:

Canada Day is behind us. If the town felt like it hit peak capacity on Wednesday, that's because it did. Fort George ran free all day, the Rotary BBQ was back in Simcoe Park, the Cake Parade went down Queen Street, and the fireworks closed it all out at 10. Not a bad way to burn a Wednesday.

Now the week shifts. Tonight, Music Niagara wraps up five straight nights of jazz at Ironwood Cider House with Heather Bambrick doing Broadway. Saturday, St. Mark's Cherry Festival returns to Queenston Street. Seven hundred homemade pies, lines from 7:30 in the morning, gone by early afternoon. Then Tuesday, NOTL faces a genuinely consequential public meeting on the future of one of its most storied winery properties. More on all three below.

Strewn Estate Winery has been on Lakeshore Road for almost 30 years. Joe Will and Jane Langdon built it from the ground up, won awards, ran a cooking school on site, raised a family alongside it. Now they're selling, and the property has attracted an application that would fundamentally change what sits on that land.

A corporate entity called MPI Group has filed an Official Plan Amendment and Zoning By-law Amendment to redevelop 1339 Lakeshore Road. What they're proposing: a 58-room resort hotel, a luxury spa, and a major event space. Sixteen of the 58 rooms would go into the existing two-storey building. The other 42 would be built in a new three-storey structure on the footprint of the old cannery. The event space would be carved out of the current wine production building. The winery itself, per the application, would remain operational beside the hotel.

The application frames this as "farm-stay overnight accommodation" under provincial on-farm diversified use rules, a designation that lets agricultural properties add tourism uses. Critics, including a letter published in NOTL Local last week, argue that framing stretches the intent of those rules considerably. A 58-room resort hotel with a luxury spa and a major event space is not what most people picture when they hear "farm-stay."

There's another wrinkle. The property is listed for sale at $9.5 million, and the application appears to have been filed on behalf of a prospective buyer before any sale closes. Council is being asked to rezone agricultural land for a deal that hasn't closed yet.

The broader question behind all of it is one NOTL has been navigating for years: where's the line between agricultural land protection and tourism development in a community where both matter enormously? The Strewn application is a sharper version of a conversation the town has been having in softer terms for a long time.

The public meeting is Tuesday, July 7 at 6:00 p.m. at Town Hall. You can also join electronically. Under provincial rules, if you want legal standing to appeal any future council decision, you need to either submit written comments before the meeting or speak at it. Reference files OPA-03-2026 and ZBA-06-2026. Send written comments to [email protected].

If you've been following this story, Tuesday is when it counts.

The 2026 Lord Mayor's race is officially on: Deputy Lord Mayor Erwin Wiens announced Monday night he's running for Lord Mayor, drawing a crowd of supporters to Lakeview Vineyard Equipment Inc. on Lakeshore Road. His pitch: opposing amalgamation, protecting NOTL's agricultural land, and reining in spending. He joins regional Coun. Andrea Kaiser and businessman Vaughan Goettler in the Lord Mayor's race. Current Lord Mayor Gary Zalepa has not yet announced his intentions. On the council side, Coun. Gary Burroughs and Coun. Sandra O'Connor have both confirmed their re-election bids. New this year: NOTL is introducing online voting for advanced polling, open October 5 through October 25. Nominations close August 21, voting day October 26. The table got smaller too: council voted to cut the number of seats, so every race will be tighter.

A farmworker was killed on an NOTL road this week: A migrant farmworker named Sinhue Garcia was killed Sunday night on Concession 6 Road near Line 4, struck by a vehicle while riding a bicycle. Police allege the driver fled the scene without reporting the collision. Officers located the vehicle and charged Gavin Devries, 22, of NOTL, with failure to stop after an accident resulting in death and impaired driving. Devries was released on bail. The investigation continues and police are asking anyone with dashcam or surveillance footage from the area to come forward. It is not the first time a farmworker has been killed on a NOTL rural road.

Your tax dollars, with signage The town just launched a capital project signage program. Branded signs are going up at eight active project sites across NOTL under the theme "Your Investment. Our Responsibility." Look for them at Simcoe Park (playground upgrade), Mississagua Street (full reconstruction), Regent Street (culvert replacement), Virgil Sports Park (new swings, rubberized surface), Line 2 near Crossroads Public School (road rebuild and traffic calming), Sparky's Park (half-court to full basketball court), Line 3 (road and watermain), and Line 7 (watermain replacement). Each sign links to the Town's OpenBook budget portal at notl.openbook.questica.com if you want to track spending.

Konzelmann Winery ordered to pay $41K after outdoor events dispute A court has ordered Konzelmann Estate Winery on Lakeshore Road to pay $41,683.62 in legal costs to a neighbouring farm, Brox. The dispute centred on outdoor events Konzelmann had been running that a judge found were contrary to its permitted land uses. The court issued permanent injunctions barring future non-permitted activities. Council approved a zoning amendment for the property in April, and Konzelmann is now working through final site plan approvals. Brox president Ed Werner said the case should not have needed to go to court: the town's failure to enforce its own bylaws forced the neighbours to sue. The town did not respond to requests for comment.

NOTL may cut development charges to unlock $3M grant The town is considering reducing fees on new residential construction to qualify for a $3 million provincial infrastructure grant. Development charges fund growth-related infrastructure, so cutting them shifts some of those costs elsewhere. Council hasn't made a final decision. Worth watching as fall budget season approaches.

A new exhibition opens Sunday at the Niagara Pumphouse Nature's Heartbeat, featuring acrylic paintings by Hamilton artist Lynda Flanagan, opens at the Niagara Pumphouse Arts Centre with a free reception Sunday July 5, 2 to 4 p.m. Flanagan's work explores the connection between people and the natural world, from northern Ontario forests to shorelines. Admission is free. Worth a Sunday afternoon if you're in town.

The Marotta family spent five years on this before opening the doors. That should tell you something.

The family behind Two Sisters Vineyards quietly built Stone Eagle Winery on Niagara Stone Road. 36 acres, ultra-premium positioning, seven private tasting rooms, a ballroom, an upscale restaurant, and a covered outdoor terrace. It is, by any measure, a serious addition to wine country. Toronto Life just ran a feature calling it a redefinition of what a Niagara winery can be.

The Nest at Stone Eagle is the restaurant: Mediterranean-inspired, locally sourced, globally influenced. Hokkaido scallops, lobster gnocchi, Ontario spring lamb. Open Monday through Sunday, 11:30am to 9pm. The kind of room that earns a reservation.

Stone Eagle opened in November 2025 and has been building quietly since. If you haven't been yet, summer is the obvious time.

Stone Eagle Winery | stoneeaglewinery.com | Niagara Stone Road, NOTL

The Strewn Winery application puts a pointed question on the table, but it's really just one version of a debate NOTL has been having for a while.

What's the line for you between growth that fits NOTL and growth that doesn't?