BarrelHead getting set to move outdoor experience indoors

BarrelHead, a favourite outdoor patio in Virgil popular for its much-loved wood-oven pizza and icewine cocktails, is preparing to move indoors for the winter.

And when it does, it will be a reinvented, improved version of itself, offering that great outdoor feel but with more of everything its regulars love about it.

When Pillitteri Estates Winery opened its BarrelHead patio, it was an idea that had been fermenting for some time, but came to a timely fruition out of necessity.

Jeff Letvenuk, marketing manager for the winery, recalls the decision-making that led to the outdoor space.

The winery had been operating without a restaurant since it opened in 1993, catering events when needed, and the Pillitteri family “was thinking about a restaurant onsite,” he said. However, when COVID hit, lockdowns were put in place and restaurants began finding their way through provincial government regulations with patios, “it became even more important to have that space outside.”

Planning went into full gear, “and it was ready to go by spring 2020.”

It was going to happen anyway, but the pandemic “sped up the plan,” said Letvenuk, which was to focus on wood-oven pizza with fresh local ingredients, gourmet salads with seasonal fruits and vegetables, and to feature Pillitteri Estates icewine in delicious cocktail concoctions.

“After COVID, we put the pedal to the metal, expanded the pizza menu, and added more cocktails.”

The pizza choices have continued to evolve, said Letvenuk. But what hasn’t changed is sourcing ingredients from neighbouring growers, with the winery believing that provides the best quality food items.

And they must be right – customers keep coming back.

“People love our pizza. It is always going to the core of what we do, and our cocktail menu, with 18 different kinds, offers the biggest selection in Niagara,” said Letvenuk.

Icewine is not just a dessert wine, he explained. “It goes with everything,” and in its premium cocktails is only one of several ingredients, adding sweetness and acidity. “Other ingredients add the sour and other notes, such a vodka or tequila, infusing flavour, creating a combination people love and adding a unique character to our cocktails.”

It also makes the cocktails “a wonderful pairing with pizza,” he added.

BarrelHead will close on Sunday, Sept. 29 at 8 p.m. and will reopen at noon on Thursday, Oct. 3 indoors. And new this year, "while we still have nice weather we will keep limited patio seats on our Tank Farm wine-tasting patio available for BarrelHead guests. We will operate this patio as long as weather cooperates while still operating indoors daily," said Letvenuk.

Regulars will notice some great new changes inside they will also love — for the first time, the indoor restaurant will be open seven days a week.

It will feature a larger menu, and will include a sports theme, with sports specials and  TVs in the restaurant to watch sports, said Letvenuk. "Pillitteri supports Canadian sports," he said, including offering an official Team Canada Wine Collection, with $1 from the sale of each bottle of Team Canada wine going directly to the Canadian Olympic Foundation to support Canadian athletics and athletes.

But that’s not all that will be new indoors.

“We haven’t had live music inside before, but there will be this winter.”

Fridays and Saturdays, he said, the restaurant will feature local musicians offering acoustic entertainment.

While “a lot of locals love coming back over and over again for their favourites, or to try something new, tourists from the GTA and upstate New York also stop by. They’ve heard of us, and they come to try our pizza, and the wine-tasting flights we offer as well,” said Letvenuk.

“We will be bringing the outdoor patio feel inside,” when the move occurs over the weekend, said Skylar Richard, BarrelHead manager, creating “the outdoor experience” in the winery.

“People love what we’re doing on the patio. We’re just going to be offering that inside.”