Living on Manitoulin Island brings new experiences every day. Whether it be finding a new fishing spot or secluded place to swim in the summertime, you’ll be surprised at some of the hidden gems this special island is home to. One of those hidden gems is Quintina’s and we love them for their specialty cheeses!
We recently discovered Quintina’s specialty cheeses at the Taste of Italy Valentine’s Dinner. To say that I was a bit excited about discovering that we can get specialty cheeses on Manitoulin Island is a severe understatement. I was ecstatic!
At our New Year’s Eve party, we had a raclette party with close friends. It was a small gathering of just three families, all of whom enjoy art, wine, fine cuisine, and engaging conversation. We ushered in the new year and the morning after the raclette party, we reconvened for breakfast, where we discussed topics of physics and space travel, to history and current events.
The reason I mention the New Year’s raclette party is because we had not been able to source good “raclette cheese”, so our friend from Switzerland brought back several varieties of raclette cheese from his trip back home to Switzerland.
If you’re not familiar with raclette, it’s a Swiss/French dish based on heating the cheese and scraping (racler in French) the melted part off. We were given a raclette grill for our wedding and we used to use it quite often. We haven’t used it much lately, so we used New Year’s Eve as a great excuse to dig out the electric raclette we have.
Our Swiss friend served up a traditional Swiss raclette meal. The melted cheese was served with boiled potatoes, pickles, pearl onions, and sausages. So good!
When I told our Swiss friend about Quintina’s specialty cheeses, he was in disbelief. “Are you kidding me? You mean to say, we can get good cheese on Manitoulin Island? And, in Spring Bay? That sounds so random!”
It was no joke. I never joke about good cheese!
When I described where Quintina’s is located, our friend had a general idea of where it was. “Is that the place with a store? It’s red building?”
When you live on Manitoulin Island, sometimes you need to wear many hats. Quintina’s is a lovely guest house as well as a clothier and gift shop. It’s a perfect mix of everything.
Quintina’s Guest House
Some photos of the inside of Quintina’s Guest House. Photos of the guest house and shop have all been supplied by and are owned by Quintina’s.
Quintina’s Clothier & Gourmet Offerings
There’s beauty in every little touch from the guest house decor to the specialty items in the shop.
We can’t forget about Quintina’s specialty cheeses!
Though all of the above interest me, and I highly recommend that you should stay at Quintina’s Guest House if you are traveling to Manitoulin Island, I simply must tell you about their specialty cheeses!
At the Taste of Italy Valentine’s Dinner, Diane and Rick (proprietors of Quintina’s) brought samplings of their cheeses and they made sure to bring cheese if anyone wished to purchase. Truth be told, I made sure to bring lots of extra cash, because I knew I was going to be leaving with cheese! My husband had the same thoughts and also brought extra cash. He too, had cheese on the mind.
When we had our friends over for a visit, we served them some of our cheese from Quintina’s. Our friends from France and Switzerland were so thrilled to be able to have some really good cheese. They really appreciate cheese as much as we do.
My absolute favourite from the selection we have is the Italian sheep cheese with saffron and peppercorn. I absolutely love the taste and fragrance of saffron and the peppercorn gives a surprising bite and spice. The flavours are intense. The saffron is really uplifting.
My second favourite is the Scottish Cheddar (Isle of Kintyre). At first tasting, I thought the cheese to be a bold and full-flavoured cheddar. After many other tastings (I can always find an excuse to eat good cheese), I found the cheese had a mild rounded taste, with nutty, sweet hints.
My husband, our Swiss friend and our French friend favour the Comté Fort des Rousses.
Since discovering Quintina’s, we’ve drummed up a few new customers for them! All those who have sampled some of the cheeses we bought are really excited and cannot wait to visit Quintina’s to buy their own cheese!
Visit Quintina’s website at www.quintinas.com and engage with them on Facebook as well.
Quintina’s was featured in the following article in the Manitoulin Expositor: Gourmet offerings at Quintina’s Clothier and Guest House in Spring Bay.
Sounds like a great place to visit when on the island. Hopefully one of these days we will get to make our trip there, it is on the to do list.
I love how you support your local businesses on the Island on which you live. Bravo to you for being such a great promoter and sharing all of these businesses.