On any given weekend from summer through early fall, Hale Muskoka has something unique to do, eat, and see. You might find yourself building a charcuterie board under the watch of Michelin-recognized chefs, grabbing a bite from a food truck to enjoy at the fireside lounge, or perusing the open-air market with live music as your soundtrack. And that’s only a small taste of what Hale currently is — and what Founder Eric Abugov wants it to be.
“It's built for you to experience,” says Abugov, a development sector veteran who soft-launched the market and events hub with his wife last summer. Today, locals, cottagers, and tourists can flock to their five-acre farm in Gravenhurst, home to a mix of food and retail vendors, a weekly open-air market, and a revolving door of events and activities. More than that, Hale offers the benefits of a “third space” — something Abugov and his wife felt was missing after moving to the area post-pandemic.
Hale Founders Eric Abugov and Robin Kerbel
“If you live here or you're a cottager, you’re coming to get away from the day-to-day action of the city, and you’re going to rest and relax. But there are also downtimes here, like Sundays or rainy days, where the monotony can creep in,” he says. “We felt Muskoka lacked the very thing that people have been escaping, essentially, and that's community stimulation and experience. That’s how Hale was born.”
This year, Hale has brought back popular events from last summer, like the (aforementioned) charcuterie “tasting and making” experience with St. Catherines’ Fat Rabbit and Jesse Tree Fine Foods, and the “Smash & Sear: Best in Burger” showdown featuring a roster of notable Canadian chefs. There are also new offerings, like Cabin, a permanent retail space filled with Ontario- and Canadian-made goods.
This year's Board & Barrel: Charcuterie Experience will take place on July 25
The Board & Barrel: Charcuterie Experience
Behind the scenes, there’s an even larger vision taking shape, with The Barn and The Grange event venues slated to open in spring 2027 — which will allow Hale to operate year-round — and a commercial kitchen and Zen garden in the pipeline. Abugov sees weddings being held at The Barn, corporate events and film production happening at The Grange, and live acoustic performances in the Zen garden, while the commercial kitchen will give local vendors extra production space. But above all, he wants the spaces to be adaptable to be whatever the community needs and wants them to be.
“I liken it to a Broadway theatre… its built-form has to be flexible enough to adapt to to the show,” he adds. “We don’t create the show; we put on the show. And I felt like that is a culmination of what I've done over time.”
This year's Smash & Sear: Best in Burger Competition will be held on August 9
The Smash & Sear: Best in Burger Competition
Abugov’s desire to create a community-rooted network of multi-use spaces draws from the more than three decades he’s spent in the retail and mixed-use development space. That includes the past 20 years spent as president of Stockdale Development Corporation, which focuses on mixed-use communities, as well as urban renewal and public space projects. Still, he admits to turning the conventional development process on its head with Hale, acquiring the land in 2024, hitting the ground running with a soft launch on the market side in 2025, and securing the building permits needed to construct the indoor venues earlier this year.
Hale's new Cabin store opens this summer
The Barn venue is slated for completion in spring 2027
“Normally, the way you would roll something like this out is, you would have the idea, do your due diligence as a developer, build the building, put the infrastructure in, and then build the business around filling the space and making it work and so on. [With Hale] we decided, let’s start with the other side, let’s start with the market, let’s start with vendors,” says Abugov. “It was kind of a backwards approach, but it’s all really worked.”
“It’s been a nice, comfortable way to grow,” he adds. “But the real success will be in the down months, when we’re creating opportunity where others haven’t; where others aren't trying to. It's important for us to be in the community, and it's important to not be one dimensional. To be able to meet the dimension, the broadness of the marketplace, because that's what Hale is all about.”
