Prince Edward Island’s Red Island Cider has opened a second location with the launch of The Brackley Bar, a cider-first outdoor destination designed to introduce more visitors to local cider while expanding the company’s direct-to-consumer business.
Located on Brackley Point Road near Brackley Beach — one of the busiest tourist routes on the Island, The Brackley Bar officially opened in June 2026 as part of a growing hospitality site anchored by Brackley Bay Oyster Company. The project represents a significant step for Red Island Cider founder Robert van Waarden, who spent several years looking for exactly the right spot to bring the cidery closer to PEI’s tourism traffic.
“For years we’d been looking for a second location. Our Charlottetown taproom isn’t in a high-traffic tourist spot, and we wanted a place where we could sell direct to visitors instead of just wholesale to bars and stores — somewhere we controlled the experience, and the margin. But also somewhere that clients would ‘happen upon’ us instead of having to search us out.”Robert van Waarden, Red Island Cider
The Business Case
The idea goes back nearly three years, to when the Brackley Bay site was still under construction. Van Waarden talked with the Brackley Bay Oyster Co. owners on and off for a couple of years before things clicked into place. Once the fit became clear, the team moved fast on permits and construction to be open for the summer season.
The motivation was as much financial as it was creative. “To get to that point where we are maximizing production, reducing overhead and seeing better margins was always going to require a second spot,” van Waarden said. And unlike a restaurant, the bar concept let Red Island keep things focused. “I know that cider goes hand-in-hand with food, the way it does at most breweries. But we weren’t going to be able to do that at our new location and I don’t want to run a restaurant.”
Building from the Ground Up
Because this was a new build — not a renovation — the team had to navigate everything from scratch: washroom, electrical, plumbing, septic, building code, architects, and engineers. New accessibility requirements also changed the original deck design, adding an accessible washroom and requiring a custom septic solution.
“I was hands-on for all of it: mixing concrete, helping our builder or just getting out of their way, coordinating materials, then heading back into town to make cider.” Robert van Waarden
The Experience
Built into a repurposed shipping container, The Brackley Bar is an outdoor, summer-only setup that opens wide onto a deck. There are four ciders on tap, more in the retail fridge, local beer on tap and in cans, non-alcoholic options, and the standout new addition: a cider slushie machine.
“There aren’t really doors, maybe that’s the best part,” van Waarden said.
An upper deck on top of the container offers views toward the water, and a collection of food partners operate on-site: a lobster roll truck, a smash burger and fish and chips truck, a pulled pork option, a coffee container, and the main Brackley Bay building serving PEI oysters.
“The fact that you can get a lobster roll, oysters or burgers and bring them up to our deck is incredible. All of it pairs really well with cider.” Robert van Waarden
The vibe skews more casual and summery than the Charlottetown taproom…what van Waarden calls “a younger, more fun version” of the original experience.
Community Buy-In
The bar isn’t just a business outpost — it has a genuine community dimension. Red Island ran a Kickstarter campaign to help fund the deck, and around 50 locals backed it. Their names are now physically built into the deck itself.
“It gives the place a real community feel,” van Waarden said, “and it also means those locals will bring their visitors to the deck in the summer.” The expectation is that shoulder-season traffic will skew more local, while peak summer draws the beach-bound visitors and tourists passing through on the North Shore road.
Why This Location, Why Now
There’s no bar in that part of the North Shore, and no off-site cider retail either. For van Waarden, the road to Brackley Beach is prime territory: high volume, food-friendly, and underserved by anything cider-forward.
“We’re leaning into being cider-first,” he said. “Cider taps outnumber beer and we will always convince you to drink a cider when you belly up to the bar.”
Cider also fits naturally into PEI’s food identity. Red Island sources its apples from PEI and Atlantic Canada, and van Waarden sees cider as a key part of the Island’s farm-to-table story. “PEI has built its identity as a food island, and cider is very much part of that growing food scene alongside local farmers and restaurants.”
Looking Ahead
Success, according to van Waarden, will be measured in two ways: revenue and reach. “Being revenue-positive and becoming a go-to stop for locals and visitors heading to or from the beach. I’d also love to help more people discover cider.”
The early signs are encouraging. Live music has already been happening on the upper deck, and events — in partnership with the other on-site businesses — are being planned for the season ahead.
But perhaps the most meaningful opportunity at The Brackley Bar is something harder to quantify: reaching people who weren’t already looking for cider.
“A lot of our guests haven’t tried cider before. This is quite different from the taproom where people sought us out for cider. Because we’re a spot people stumble onto rather than seek out, we get to introduce it to them. Hopefully it becomes their new go-to after they leave us.”Robert van Waarden
For cider makers watching the industry grow, The Brackley Bar is a reminder that the next big market opportunity may be hiding in plain sight — right on the road to the beach.
Related Listening
🎙️ Cider Chat Episode 426: Red Island Cider: Crafting Stories in Every Bottle | PEI
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