Foodies flock to local resort

By Sarah Sobanski

The revitalization of an Elephant Lake Road resort is well underway.

New owner of Nomi Resort Elise Blouin says Nomi resort is “rebranding” with a shift in focus, new events and renovations.  The resort was previously known as White Pine Shores Resort and Martinwood Resort.

“The old name, Martinwood, we're going to be incorporating Martin Wood trails into our named trails — to keep a little piece of that history,” said Blouin. She explained the resort has stepped away from its golf and country club style. Now its incorporating walking trails, ATV and snowmobile trails with a focus of year-round wellness.

“The restaurant LANDS850 represents the 850 acres of land that we have here,” she said. “Beautiful terrain that slowly but surely we'll be… incorporating herbs, natural herbs from here that we grow, into our food.”

That restaurant filled up with foodies summoned from all over this past weekend, Feb. 17, for the resort's third “Winterlicious” said Blouin. She told Bancroft This Week there wasn't an empty room available.

“It's a culinary experience for the night,” Blouin noted the event's many-course dinner calling it a “social dining experience” including live entertainment from Kirk Bates.

The event started when the resort launched its new brand in 2016. Blouin said she's reaching out to get local crowds returning as “70 per cent of [her] summer crowd” she finds, “is from Europe.”

“We've definitely been growing,” she said. “We've been pushing the brand… We've made a lot of changes to help with the growth that have been well received. A lot of the changes inside that needed to be done.”

These renovations include upgrades to the kitchen, bathrooms and some overnight rooms. They also include a complete rework of the building's electrical system.

Blouin said people are “shocked” when they see what the resort looks like now.

“We actually are really passionate about food… That's been our biggest selling feature and that's what's helping the resort grow.”

“Winterlicious” continues this weekend Feb. 24. For more information visit www.nomiresort.com.

“It's a lot of work to turn everything around,” said Blouin noting the mystery surrounding the resort and its “changing of hands.” “We have a lot of people coming up to this event from Bancroft and surrounding area.”

She added, “I think this year is going to be quite amazing.”