The upscale Hawley restaurant is hosting its first-ever four-course wine dinner, featuring a popular local winery…
There are dinners you eat because it’s Tuesday and you’re hungry, and there are dinners you plan. The ones that become the whole evening.
That’s the idea behind the four-course wine-pairing dinner happening this Friday, February 6, at The BoatHouse Restaurant in Hawley, featuring wines from Wood Winery, a small, family-run winery in the North Pocono region that makes the kind of fruit-forward, food-friendly bottles that pair naturally with a well-built winter menu.
The event begins at 6:00 PM at The BoatHouse (141 Route 507, Hawley). It costs $60 per person, seating is limited, and reservations are required.
This isn’t just “dinner with a special.” It’s a structured evening: four courses, four pairings, and a guided element that makes it feel like a true event. Guests will also have the chance to meet the winemakers behind Wood Winery and hear a little about the wines and why each pairing was chosen, the part that turns a night out into something more memorable than a typical Friday reservation.
And in Hawley, in the middle of winter, that matters. It gives people a reason to get out of the house and a reason to make an evening of it.
A four-course menu built for pairing (and for winter)…
The menu hits the sweet spot for a pairing dinner: it’s seasonal and comforting, but it doesn’t fall into the trap of being heavy just for the sake of being hearty. Each course has enough contrast built in to make the wine feel like part of the plate — not just something sitting alongside it.
Course one starts with potato leek soup, paired with an unoaked Chardonnay. It’s a simple idea, and a smart one. The soup brings richness; the wine keeps it bright and clean. The lack of oak helps, too; you want lift here, not heaviness.
Course two moves into seafood: mini blue crab cakes, served with risotto and Old Bay aioli, paired with Riesling. That wine choice makes sense on instinct alone. Riesling’s acidity plays well with seafood, and it also has the kind of crispness that cuts through anything creamy or seasoned.
Then comes the anchor of the dinner: grilled bacon jam pork tenderloin with mashed potatoes, paired with Wood Winery’s Shed Red (Lemberger grape). It’s the heartiest dish on the lineup, and it needs a red that can handle savory meat and smoky sweetness without getting in the way. Lemberger is a good fit, enough depth and structure, but not so heavy that it bulldozes the food.
Dessert finishes the menu with a clean, direct pairing: a chocolate-covered strawberry served with strawberry wine. It’s straightforward, which is exactly what dessert should be. You don’t need to overthink the last bite of the night.
Why The BoatHouse works for this kind of dinner…
Hawley has become the kind of town where dinner can feel like the start of a mini getaway. It’s small, walkable, and scenic, especially for anyone visiting the Lake Wallenpaupack area, but the food scene has enough range that you can build an entire night around a reservation.
The BoatHouse fits perfectly into that identity. Its kitchen leans upscale-casual and seafood-forward, with the kind of menu that makes room for both lighter plates and classic comfort staples. Mussels, shrimp, flounder, salmon, plus steakhouse-style options like a New York Strip and hearty combinations like Land & Sea, give it that dinner-house confidence: plenty of choices, well-executed, built for a night out.
That steadiness matters for a pairing dinner. These events aren’t just about cooking well; they’re about cooking well on time, across multiple courses, without chaos. The BoatHouse feels like the kind of place that can pull that off.
Wood Winery: small-batch, family-run, and built for food…
Wood Winery has the kind of profile that makes sense for an event like this: approachable, local, and personal.
The winery, located at 3491 Hornbaker Cemetery Rd, Madisonville, PA 18444, maintains a strong reputation locally. On Facebook, it shows a 98% recommendation rate based on 296 reviews. That’s not something you see by accident. It usually means the wines are solid, the experience is welcoming, and people leave feeling like the visit was worth the drive.
This is not a corporate-style tasting room operation. Wood Winery is the kind of place that tends to make wine feel less like a luxury product and more like what it’s supposed to be: something you drink with food, with friends, at the end of a day.
That also helps explain why a pairing dinner works well with their lineup. Wines don’t need to be complicated to be good, and they don’t need to be “serious” to work beautifully with a thoughtful menu. For this kind of night, what you want is balance, approachability, and enough flavor to keep things interesting across four courses.
What this says about Hawley right now…
A dinner like this doesn’t just fill tables; it shows how Hawley continues to function as a destination, even outside peak tourist months.
Winter in towns like this can go two ways: quiet or purposeful. Events like pairing dinners make it purposeful. They bring people in. They give locals something to look forward to. They turn a normal Friday into a reason to go out and a reason to stay out.
And that’s the bigger story here: Hawley isn’t just a place you pass through anymore. It’s a place you can plan around.
How to reserve…
Reservations are required. To book:
- Phone: 570-226-5027 (Mon–Wed and Fri–Sun 11am–8pm)
- Phone (mobile): 570-470-7632 (anytime)
- Email: gm@theboathouserestaurant.net
If you like your winter dinners with a little purpose, good food, good wine, and a reason to make the evening count, this one is exactly that.
