If you’re looking for a more scenic route from Ottawa to Montreal than the usual slog down Highway 417 and Autoroute 40, and you’d like to stop at a pretty apple cidery along the way, here’s a suggestion.
From Gatineau, take Autoroute Guy-Lafleur (formerly known as Quebec Highway 50) toward Mirabel, to just east of Lachute. From there, take Highway 148 southeast and follow some secondary routes to reach Cidrerie Lacroix in tiny Saint-Joseph-du-Lac, partway between Oka and Saint-Eustache.
The cidery is owned by three sisters—Elisabeth, Gabrielle and Anne—who are the fifth generation of the family that bought this property in 1986 and converted it from a brussels sprout farm to an apple orchard. The family planted the first apple trees in 1988 and opened the public cidery operation in 2020.
The drive from Ottawa to Cidrerie Lacroix will take you about two hours, through rolling hills along the north shore of the Ottawa River, followed by quiet farmland as you approach Saint-Joseph-du-Lac.
The views en route are part of the reason you’d drive all the way from Ottawa to visit an apple orchard! But there are four others: the quality of the cider, the great food in the restaurant, the pretty patio overlooking the orchard and a well-stocked shop. Read on!
Disclosure: I received a free meal and cider flight in the restaurant for review purposes. The restaurant did not review or approve this post, and all opinions are my own.
First: The cider
Let me make a confession right off the top: I’m not a big cider drinker. I’ve tried, but I find most of them too sweet, too bubbly or just too much like apple-juice-with-a-kick. So if you are a cider aficionado, your opinions on the beverages at Cidrerie Lacroix may differ from mine.
Ciders are $8 a glass or $14 for a flight of four five-ounce samples. I opted for the flight.
My favourite, perhaps unsurprisingly, was the least traditional: a radler-style cider, blended with blood orange and grapefruit. It was dry, refreshing and quite different. Of the traditional ciders in my flight, I preferred the Gabrielle, made with a blend of Lobo and Macintosh apple juices. It was as dry as advertised and quite nice. I also tried the Anne, made with apple and raspberry juices, and the Melody, a straight-up apple cider aged in oak barrels; both were semi-dry and a bit sweet for my tastes. (My usual tipple is New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, to give you an idea of how dry I like my drinks.)
Along with Lacroix cider, the restaurant also serves wine, beer, cocktails and non-alcoholic beverages.
Second: The food
Even if you’re not in search of refreshing beverages, it’s worth stopping by Cidrerie Lacroix just for the food. During the fall apple season (until late October; check the cidery’s website for exact dates), the airy, light-filled restaurant is serving brunch and lunch from Wednesday through Sunday, plus a limited happy-hour menu from 5pm to 8pm on Thursdays. Gluten-free and vegetarian options are available, and there’s also a kids’ menu.
“Everything’s homemade. Everything’s local,” says cidery manager Laurent Bourgeois. “Local” has a somewhat elastic definition; Bourgeois notes that it can mean choosing Atlantic salmon rather than the Pacific variety. However, the menu does lean quite heavily on Quebec ingredients.
Brunch specialties include tasty-looking twists on classics, such as buttermilk pancakes with dried berries, caramelized pecans and apple butter, or eggs benedict served on corn bread. But I was there for lunch, and I pondered all sorts of choices—burgers, pasta, cauliflower tempura—before settling on good old mac-and-cheese. Like the brunch items, it was a fancier version of a familiar treat, souped up with Oka and strong cheddar cheeses, apple-maple-braised bacon, and spiced panko crumbs. And OMG, it was delicious. Piping hot, nicely spiced, gooey and creamy. It was also hearty, which meant I couldn’t quite finish it…which broke my heart, I’m telling you.
Third: The patio and the orchard
Cidrerie Lacroix often hosts weddings, and it’s easy to see why. An expansive dining patio opens off the back of the restaurant, overlooking some of the orchard’s 5,000 trees. That’s a pretty nice view on any warm day, but if you want to see the trees in bloom, aim for a visit between May 5 and May 25, says Bourgeois. (He cautions that apple trees, like any plant, don’t exactly run on a tight schedule. They usually bloom for between three to eight days anytime within that three-week window. So if you have your heart set on seeing pretty apple blossoms, call ahead to check.)
Aside from spring, the other big season at Cidrerie Lacroix is early fall (September and October), when the orchard’s 19 varieties of apples are ready for picking. Among all those varieties, one stands out as a bit of a rock star. “When we announce that the Honeycrisp is going to be ready, we have lineups at eight in the morning,” says Bourgeois with a laugh. (The orchard opens for picking at 9am.)
Note: If you’d like to pick-your-own, bring your own bags.
Fourth: The shop
I’m always a sucker for a gift shop, and the one at Cidrerie Lacroix is particularly attractive. Like the rest of the place, it has a bright, almost Scandinavian, vibe. It’s stocked with a wide range of house-made products, including apple cider, apple jelly and caramel apple sauce, as well as items from other Quebec and Eastern Ontario producers (such as St. Albert cheese curds). If discovering new local ingredients is one of your primary reasons for a road trip, you’ll find a lot of tempting items here.
If you go
As I mentioned, it takes about two hours to reach Cidrerie Lacroix from Ottawa. You’ll find the cider maker at 649, chemin Principal, Saint-Joseph-du-Lac, Quebec.
If you’d like to extend your trip, you could check out a few other nearby attractions. For instance, Maison Lavande is a pretty lavender farm less than a 10-minute drive away. The lavender generally blooms in late June and early July, but the farm hosts concerts and other special events at other times of year, and it also has a nice gift shop stocked with its own lavender products.
Other places of note near Cidrerie Lacroix include L’Abbaye de Oka (a monastery with a bistro, an auberge and a shop selling the abbey’s namesake cheese) and Parc national d’Oka, a waterfront park open year round. You could also take a ferry (spring through fall) to the charming town of Hudson. And you’re about an hour’s drive from downtown Montreal, if the traffic is light (a big if).
Want to make an overnight trip of it? Use the map below to find a place to stay. Disclosure: If you book a place using the links in this map, I’ll receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.
Looking for more tips on things to see and do in Eastern Ontario, the Outaouais, northern New York state and beyond? Subscribe to my free weekly newsletter or order a copy of my book, Ottawa Road Trips: Your Weekend Getaway Guide.
As the owner of Ottawa Road Trips, I acknowledge that I live on, work in and travel through the unceded, unsurrendered territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabeg Nation. I am grateful to have the opportunity to be present on this land. Ottawa Road Trips supports Water First, a non-profit organization that helps address water challenges in Indigenous communities in Canada through education, training and meaningful collaboration.