The Whisky Bar Patio at Wayne Gretzky Estates

A barbecue smokehouse is not the first thing you expect to find on a winery estate, but that is what runs on the patio at Wayne Gretzky Estates. The kitchen smokes brisket, pulled pork, and chicken on a property better known for its wine and its whisky, and the result is a patio where a tray of smoked proteins arrives beside a Niagara pour. It sits on Niagara Stone Road, in the wine corridor outside Niagara-on-the-Lake, and it treats the contradiction as the whole point: low-and-slow smokehouse cooking served in the middle of wine country, on an estate that most visitors arrive at for the tastings and the name on the gate.

The clearest read of the kitchen is the Smokehouse Platter — three proteins and two sides, with corn bread and coleslaw, and a protein list that runs from chopped brisket and pulled pork shoulder to smoked lemongrass chicken, tofu burnt ends, and hot-smoked pulled oyster mushroom. From there the menu fans out. There is a Smoked Double Patty Burger with jalapeno pickle sauce, a Chopped Brisket Hoagie dressed in whisky barbecue sauce, and a Smoked Lemongrass Chicken Banh-Mi carrying cilantro mayo and house pickles. The shareables lean louder: Firecracker Calamari with Indian mango pickle mayo, Hasselback Smoked Kielbasa with whisky mustard and warm pickle kraut, a Burratini cheese platter with grilled naan and hot honey, poutine built on spiced fries. A shredded kale Caesar with pretzel croutons and a S'mores sundae finished with torched marshmallow bracket the meal at either end, and the vegan proteins are not afterthoughts but full options on the platter.