One year after opening, the Wolfe Island Hotel is thriving

Jeff Green | Jun 22, 2022

A year ago, the ambitious plans of the new owners of the Hotel Wolfe Island (the former General Wolfe Inn) were set in place, and it was time to see how the local community and visitors from across the water in Kingston would respond.

At that time the hotel was just re-opening for dining, planning for an outdoor kitchen in order to be able to operate under COVID protocols, and potential vendors were still being contacted for the waterfront Saturday market in what had been a parking area. The first tentative musical programming was being undertaken by musician/producer Chris Brown, who had purchased the building with writer Tom Carpenter.

They had made the leap into making the purchase for a couple of reasons. The first was based on the  the concern that a developer would buy it in order to demolish the building and replace it with waterfront condominiums. The second, compelling reason was to set up a social enterprise that went beyond the operation of the hotel through establishing the Wolfe Island Market and The Wolfe Island Commons.

A year later, the Hotel Wolfe Island has emerged from COVID as a popular gathering spot, offering dinner menus throughout the week, a Sunday brunch, and concerts about 4 days a week. The market is ramping up for its second season.

On a Sunday in early June, taking a break after helping out with the sound check for a concert by the acclaimed four piece string band, Vinta, a project focusing on European folk dance traditions, (the music at Hotel Wolfe Island is eclectic) Chris Brown sat down for a short interview.

He said that a year after opening up for business, he is “more enthused than ever about the way things are progressing, about the people that are working here and the community that is coming together. It's growing exponentially. I thought the market, for example, would take a couple of years to get developed. It happened right away, largely thanks to Julie Crozier's hard work,  but it was needed. It's something that the agriculturalists around here needed. They needed some way of getting food to market, especially after COVID.”

Renovations and upgrades to the property are ongoing. The former hotel parking lot, which is on the water, and is now the site of the market and an outdoor eating and concert space, is undergoing a project that has been dubbed “de-paving paradise” as the asphalt is being removed, and new drainage and aesthetic improvements are being undertaken. 

This week, the Wolfe Island Garden Party is underway, running from June 16-27. 

“In a way, this all started with the Garden Party, which we ran for three years before COVID. It was a way to connect the agricultural and musical communities, and to look at how we can create a local economy that serves to nurture the community. Farm to table dinners were part of that, and now we have them all the time at the hotel. This year the garden party is about having all the musicians who haven't played for two years, over ten days, and rather than being tied to another charity as it was before, it is about raising money for them, and about having ten days of wonderful music.”

Concerts, which are continuing day and night this coming weekend, are for the suggested price of $20 or pay what you can. Performers include: Halifax based New Hermitage, Chris Brown's own New Ropes, the Montreal based folk-blues guitarist Michael Jerome Brown, and a Garden Party Salon hosted by Elphin's own Jenny Whiteley.

For details about the garden party, go to wolfeislandrecords.com/gardenparty.

The Hotel, weekly market, and enterprises that are associated with the Wolfe Island Commons, are all gearing up for this summer.

In a way, the inevitable delays in bringing an expanded ferry service directly to Marysville, have been beneficial to the Hotel Wolfe Island enterprise.

“It has allowed us to develop at a pace that we can handle, before the influx that will come with the new ferry,” said Brown.