If you’ve ever wanted to dine alfresco in the winter in The Kawarthas, Cheeky Duck Vineyard is making it easy to do so. The Lakefield farm-to-table restaurant has brought back their snow domes, which keep heat trapped inside and snow trapped outside so you can enjoy the wine and bites regardless of the weather.
“It’s a really cool experience that we offer,” says founder and head chef Josh Keepfer. “We have lots of clients that are even booking Airbnbs in the area and coming up from the city just to have a dome experience, which is super fun.”
Providing an experience is exactly what Keepfer and his team have always set out to do. Cheeky Duck’s origins go back to 2018 as the catering company Kitchen Farmacy, which does about 40 off-site weddings each year.
During the pandemic, Keepfer began planting five acres of grapevine and, in June of 2024, opened the restaurant to serve share plates and pizzas made on wood stoves and live fires. As a biodynamic vineyard, Cheeky Duck prioritizes a regenerative cycle, including runner ducks assisting with pest control in place of pesticides and all food scraps going right back to the animals.
“We just want to have something a bit close to us to be able to serve the beautiful food that we offer, but also a kind of agritourism experience,” says Keepfer. “When people park and they see the farm animals, then come and sit down and have the dining experience, it’s the whole picture. It’s something that we’ve been working so hard in creating so that experience in not just the food and wine, but the land itself.”
Hailing from Wales, Keepfer trained under Michelin chefs across Europe and says that eating outside and dining on share plates is something that’s very common overseas but also something he describes as being the “Canadian cottage way.”
“It’s special when we go out to the lakes here and see family at the cottage,” he says. “You have a dining table and people bring food and share food, and it’s just the romance of it and the experience from it that we really wanted to harness here.”
Keepfer says Cheeky Duck Vineyard focuses on “comfort familiarities that people love and can relate to,” which is why they want to make outdoor dining available, even in the winter.
“We wanted to carry on that experience of guests sitting outside and dining and really enjoying the food aspects, the wine aspects, and the views of the vineyard, so we thought about how we can keep that experience in place,” Keepfer says.
The vineyard is now equipped with two large plastic domes — upgraded in size from last year’s — that can seat up to 12 to 14 diners at a time across three tables. Larger groups can also secure an entire dome, which has been done for corporate dinners, bachelorette parties, birthday parties, and other events.
While they are kept warm with electric garage heaters, the domes aren’t insulated so Keepfer recommends diners wear layers just in case they get chilly.
“I’ve walked in and there’s been people just in their T-shirts and there have been people with just a small jumper on, so it’s really dependent on your comfort level,” Keepfer says. “We pre-heat the domes so when guests arrive, they’re already warm.”
Open “snow or shine,” the domes are already proving to be a popular destination, with lots of reservations already booked right through Christmas and until January 2 when Cheeky Duck closes until the spring. Of course, if a snow dome table isn’t available, you can still dine inside the restaurant.
“People just want to do something different in the Kawarthas right now,” Keepfer says. “It’s been a very welcomed experience.”
Located at 1786 Youngs Point Road in Lakefield, Cheeky Duck Vineyard is open from 4 to 9 p.m. Wednesday to Saturday and from 10 to 3 p.m. on Sundays for brunch. Note that the restaurant is closed on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, but will reopen on Boxing Day.
For more information and to book a table, visit www.cheekyduckvineyard.com.
