Dining under the lock
Under Water Dining at Lock 21 series makes debut and draws foodies from as far as California to the Lift Lock
Carolyn Parrish was trembling with excitement as she arrived at the Peterborough Lift Lock on Thursday.
She and her husband Ed, a retired aerospace engineer, are from San Diego, Calif.
They flew to Canada this week, specifically to dine under the famous Peterborough Lift Lock.
Although the concept was tested last July, this was the first time the experience was offered to paying customers.
“We flew up here just for this,” said Parrish, a retired public administrator. “And it was so, so worth it.”
It’s a unique dining experience, all right: one evening a month, for the rest of this summer, Peterborough and the Kawarthas Tourism are offering fine dining beneath the Lift Lock.
Seated at tables beneath one of the hoisted boat chambers, 16 guests can dine al fresco. The chamber suspended 65 feet above holds water weighing 1,700 tons.
It’s already popular: Under Water Dining at Lock 21 is sold out for the rest of the season (July, August and September).
Even at $265 per person (plus tax) the tickets for the whole summer were sold in just 10 hours, when they were released in March.
Parrish said she first became aware of it when she was in Vancouver last year, where she noticed a mention in a newspaper article.
After the concept was tested, it was described in a short piece distributed by The Canadian Press.
Parrish says it caught her attention because she and her husband are thrill-seekers, when they travel.
“We’ve climbed Kilimanjaro!” she said. “We’ve jumped out of perfectly good planes!”
But this was something new – eating beneath the world’s tallest hydraulic lift lock. She had to try it.
So she signed up for the Peterborough and the Kawarthas Tourism newsletter, where she found out the date the tickets would go on sale. She bought the first two.
Parrish said she screamed with delight the day she got the tickets, and the experience was everything she’d hoped: “It was perfect from beginning to end.”
“We are so thrilled,” said Tracie Bertrand, director of tourism for Peterborough and the Kawarthas, after the last guests departed on Thursday.
Bertrand couldn’t stop grinning – the dinner was a hit.
Of the 16 guests, few were from Peterborough: aside from the California couple, they were from Toronto, Ottawa, Renfrew and Oshawa.
Diners enjoyed a five-course meal featuring local ingredients such as trout, strawberries and asparagus. The food was prepared by three local chefs: Brad Watt, Kevin McKenna and Mike Sterpin.
Guests were also taken on a tour of the Lift Lock; they met the lockmaster and heard the famous ghost stories about the 1904 structure.
They also got to paddle the canal and go up and down the Lift Lock in a voyageur canoe.
Kelly Jessup, the marketing lead for Peterborough and the Kawarthas Tourism, said the experience is meant to be absolutely unique.
“You literally can’t do this anywhere else in the world.”
NOTE: Want to take part in the experiences in the 2018 season? Sign up for the Peterborough and the Kawarthas Insider newsletter at www.thekawarthas.ca/ newsletter.