Walk past the corner of the old Aquarium Shop on any evening this month and you'll see plywood over the windows, a construction dumpster, and a sign for the project. That's Brasserie 1796, the European-inspired restaurant that was supposed to be open by spring. Four blocks away, crews are stringing banners for the sixth annual Anchor Bay Countryfest, set for this Friday, September 18, at Walter & Mary Burke Park. The town's biggest weekend of the season is about to happen, while the new dinner spot remains under construction.
No opening date is confirmed for Brasserie 1796. If you're deciding where to eat before or after Countryfest, make plans around the places that are open.
Brasserie 1796: Project Details
Brasserie 1796 takes its name from the year New Baltimore's first European settlers arrived, and the concept is built around that history: European-inspired dishes made from locally sourced ingredients, cooked in a scratch kitchen, served in a new 4,600-square-foot building designed for an intimate dining room of 70-plus guests. It's going up on the former Aquarium Shop site, just off the corner most locals already associate with downtown's slow rebuild.
The restaurant's own site describes the space in progress, promising something "as warm and welcoming as the food we serve." The homepage offers little beyond that description. Coverage back in late 2025 had the opening targeted for spring 2026. Spring came and went. Late-summer sourcing still shows the same "under construction, opening soon" language on the restaurant's own homepage, with updates promised through Facebook and Instagram rather than a fixed calendar.
None of that means the project has stalled. But if you're making dinner plans this month, choose from the places that are already open.
What Countryfest Weekend Actually Looks Like This Year
So where does that leave Friday night, or the Saturday after, when Countryfest crowds spill back into downtown looking for a table? The same three places that have carried New Baltimore's dinner scene for years, each doing something a little different:
- Fin's Eatery & Spirits occupies the old Anchor Bay Pharmacy building in historic downtown, two floors with two bars and a newer second-floor outdoor deck that looks straight out over the water. It's known for baby back ribs and freshly shucked oysters Rockefeller, the kind of menu that predates most of the town's newer openings.
- Blind Owl Restaurant & Bar on Main Street runs Modern Mexican food alongside sushi, with one of the larger tequila and bourbon selections in the area. It's a different register entirely from Fin's, useful if your group can't agree on a cuisine.
- On The Bay Restaurant, Bar & Boutique sits a block from the waterfront and leans into its own identity hard, with a tiki bar, key lime everything, and outdoor seating built around fire tables and heated gazebos for when the fall air turns.
With dinner options covered, the rest of New Baltimore's fall calendar still has plenty to offer.
The Rest of the Season Isn't Done Yet
It's easy to assume the New Baltimore Farmers Market has already wound down for the year once the leaves start turning, but the market has run on Washington Street between Main and Front since 2007, Sundays from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., stretching from the first weekend in May well into October most seasons. If you've written off Sunday mornings downtown as a summer-only habit, there's still time left before that assumption becomes true.
The New Baltimore Lions Club keeps its own fall rhythm going too, with an Oktoberfest and a Chili Cookoff that have become annual fixtures heading into October, alongside the club's Winterfest each February. Between the farmers market's remaining Sundays, Countryfest this Friday, and the Lions Club's fall lineup still ahead, the calendar downtown doesn't actually go quiet after Labor Day the way the empty construction lot on the corner might suggest.
Together, the farmers market and Lions Club events give residents reasons to keep coming downtown through fall.
If you live here, that's useful to know heading into Friday. Make your Countryfest dinner plans around what's actually open. Fin's, Blind Owl, and On The Bay have all done this before. Brasserie 1796 remains under construction.
New Baltimore keeps adding to its own story a little at a time, and that's usually how the towns worth staying in actually grow. If you're thinking about what a move into this market looks like, or what your own property here might be worth as the town keeps filling in its downtown corners, Great Lakes Realty and Prop Mgmt knows this stretch of Anchor Bay from the ground up. Let's turn the next page, get your free home valuation whenever you're ready.
