Gideon Owen, One of the ‘Best Things to Do at the Shores & Islands of Lake Erie’
- Marketing at Gideon Owen
- Sep 14, 2022
- 2 min read
Updated: Nov 17, 2023
Special thanks to 'Breakfast with Nick' for visiting and choosing Gideon Owen as one of the ‘Best Things to Do at the Shores & Islands of Lake Erie!’ Read about his visit and find out what else there is to do during your visit to the lake! Our friends at Twin Oast made the list, too!
It’s been a few years since we’ve stayed at Lake Erie. Our last visit was in 2016, when the folks from Shores & Islands hosted us around the time of Owen’s birthday. He was obsessed with lighthouses at the time, so we visited the structures on the mainland and South Bass Island. This summer we were happy to return to explore more of Port Clinton, Marblehead, Lakeside, Kelleys Island, and Catawba Island, so we present some of the best things to do at the Shores & Islands!
Sip Wines on the Patio at Gideon Owen Wine Company
Regulars to the area will remember the long-running Mon Ami winery on Catawba Island. In 2019 the winery was purchased by Quintin and Donna Smith, who have handsomely refurbished the restaurant, patio, upstairs event space, and the historic winery, and added vineyards. They renamed it Gideon Owen Wine Company in honor of one of the original winemakers on the peninsula.
Quintin gave us a tour of the restaurant, event space, and the original underground wine-making and barreling facilities, still in use today!
The Smiths own Twin Oast Brewing company just up the road, and like that beautiful property, they’ve given Gideon Owen Wine Co. an expansive patio, perfect for catching live music, tasting house wines and cocktails, and feasting on burgers or fresh Lake Erie walleye.
Savor Beer & Pizza on the Patio at Twin Oast Brewing
Before purchasing Gideon Owen Wine Company, Quintin and Donna Smith opened Twin Oast Brewing just up the road on the Catawba peninsula. It’s easy to see why the brewery has become such a popular destination for the area, with massive tiered patios, lawns, firepits, water features, orchards, even a small concert venue.
The brewery is also a full-service restaurant, pairing pretzels, pizzas, tacos, burgers with their house beers.
Twin Oast takes its name from the two iconic towers. Oasts are English hop-drying kilns, and the duo at the brewery were specially built for it as decorative pieces, modeled on actual oasts from overseas. They’re a centerpiece of the stunning, 60-acre property.
Read more about Nick's trip to the Shores & Islands region and view pics here.
The Gideon Owen Wine Company and Twin Oast Brewing case study is genuinely interesting from a hospitality management research perspective. The Smiths have executed what academics call a "portfolio destination strategy" — creating two complementary properties that serve overlapping but distinct visitor segments and reinforce each other's appeal — with remarkable effectiveness for a regional operator. The decision to purchase and rebrand the historic Mon Ami winery rather than build from scratch was strategically astute: the underground facilities, the stone architecture, and the historical narrative of the original winemaker provide an authenticity premium that no amount of new construction can replicate. In my academic research I use a correlation coefficient calculator for hospitality performance data analysis, a density calculator for visitor distribution…
What I love most about this article is the long-term perspective it brings — returning to the same region six years later and documenting how it has changed gives a depth of context that single-visit travel writing simply cannot provide. The comparison between the 2016 lighthouse-focused visit and the 2022 food and beverage-centred return captures something important about how the Shores and Islands region has evolved as a tourism destination. The Smiths' investment in both Gideon Owen and Twin Oast has been transformative for the Catawba peninsula specifically, and it is gratifying to see that investment recognised in national travel coverage. In my family travel writing I use a camping checklist for outdoor family adventures, a birthday planning tool for milestone family…
From a professional design perspective, both Gideon Owen Wine Company and Twin Oast Brewing represent outstanding examples of outdoor hospitality design that works with rather than against the natural character of the Lake Erie shoreline. The expansive patio at Gideon Owen uses the historic stone architecture as a backdrop in a way that feels completely natural, and the tiered patios at Twin Oast create a sense of progression and discovery that keeps guests exploring rather than settling in one spot. The firepits, water features, and orchard at Twin Oast in particular show a sophisticated understanding of how outdoor spaces can create emotional engagement rather than just functional seating. In my landscape architecture work I use a square footage calculator for site…
The Twin Oast Brewing story is one of the more interesting craft brewery origin stories in the Great Lakes region. The decision to build a destination brewery on the Catawba peninsula rather than in an urban market was a genuine risk in 2019, and the success of the property validates a model that more craft brewers should consider: rather than competing for tap handles in saturated city markets, create a destination experience that draws people to you. The 60-acre property, the tiered patios, the concert venue, the orchard — these are not amenities you can replicate in an urban taproom, and they create a loyalty and repeat-visit dynamic that is very difficult for competitors to match. In my industry analysis…
The visual potential of both Gideon Owen Wine Company and Twin Oast Brewing is extraordinary and this article only scratches the surface of what these properties offer from a photography perspective. The historic stone architecture of the winery, the underground barrel rooms, the oast towers at the brewery, the tiered patios overlooking the Catawba peninsula — every corner of both properties offers something worth capturing. I spent an entire afternoon at each location on my last visit and still felt like I had not done justice to either. The golden hour light on the vineyard rows at Gideon Owen is particularly spectacular. In my photography and content work I use an aspect ratio calculator for cross-platform image formatting, a bubble letter…