Sisters Gilliane and Nathalie Nadeau. Image: Submitted
Uncorked Tours, a company that offers food and drink experiences in Southern New Brunswick, is setting up shop in the Saint John City Market.
The company will be opening a tasting room in May at the bottom of the market, across from Java Moose. Owner Gilliane Nadeau is teaming up with her sister, Nathalie, for the new venture.
“I’ve been wanting to move uncorked into the City Market space, but the timing was never right. Really, it’s been an idea that’s been percolating for well over two years,” said Nadeau in an interview.
“Now, with my sister being ready to come on board, we’re really excited to move into the space and create that tasting bar experience for our guests and locals too.”
The tasting room will be open to the public to grab a drink, as well as serve as a hub for Uncorked’s tours in the city.
“We plan to have the space that is open to everybody so you don’t have to be on a tour in order to come in,” said Nadeau.
“That is where we will meet our groups and where people can purchase tours if they want to hang out with us for the day. But otherwise, we’ll have some seating there, people can pick up some food from one of the market vendors and come in.”
The tasting room will serve wine, craft beer, spirits and cocktails. There will be weekly pairings to feature market vendors, as well as regular tap takeovers.
“We plan to have six to eight craft beer rotating at all times. We will have a handful of local wines as well to represent some of the really good wines that are starting to be made here in the province,” said Nadeau.
“We will also be doing spirit flights. We have a number of distilleries that have started up so we will be doing spirit flights so people can have simple cocktails and we will have feature cocktails as well.”
Uncorked will also have its own outside entrance, which means they’ll be able to operate outside of the City Market’s standard 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. hours for evening events.
“We won’t be open to all hours of the night by any means, but we have a bit of flexibility in our closing time which is going to let us do some really fun things for the public and private groups,” said Nadeau.
The location will also sell merchandise from local brands like Moosehead Breweries, Saint John City Market apparel and souvenirs, and Uncorked Tours drinkware and memorabilia.
Nadeu hopes Uncork’s taproom build on the City Market’s reputation as a destination for both locals and tourists alike.
“We’re really just hoping to build on the fact that the Saint John City Market is already a destination for people who live here, but also for our visitors,” she said.
“We really want to be that waypoint for people just stopping into town, but also a resource to locals who want to have a bite to eat at the market but maybe don’t want to grab their food and rush out.”
A version of this story was published in Huddle, an online business news publication based in Saint John. Huddle is an Acadia Broadcasting content partner.
