Things to Do in Florenceville-Bristol, NB (It’s Not What You Expect)

Nobody was more surprised than me to discover how many things there are to do in Florenceville-Bristol, New Brunswick. If I’m going to be completely transparent with you, it was just a name on a sign I’d been blowing past on my way to Cape Breton for years. Turns out I was dead wrong to do that, and honestly the same goes for all of New Brunswick but that’s another story for another day. Florenceville-Bristol is a proper destination, and it all started for me with the opportunity to sleep on a train that doesn’t move.

I Googled “is there actually anything to do in Florenceville-Bristol” somewhere outside Fredericton, which tells you everything about my expectations going in. What I found when I got there was a converted train car that is elevated beyond novelty, a restaurant in a town of 1,400 people that had no business being that good, the longest covered bridge in the world, a potato gun, an ark in a field, and a seasoning shack that I blacked out in. In the best possible way.

Where to Stay: Shamrock Train Suites

The thought of sleeping in a train car seems romantic at first, but let me pop that bubble for you. I have stayed in converted train cars before. The novelty is real but it has a short shelf life. They can be drafty, a little musty, and once the Instagram moment has passed you’re left wishing you’d just booked a room at a hotel instead.

The Shamrock Train Suites are not that.

What Pam Brennan, co-owner of Shamrock, has done with these train cars is beyond impressive. There’s space. There’s comfort. The bed is proper, the bathroom is proper, and the whole thing is put together with enough care that the novelty becomes a bonus rather than the whole point. You’re not roughing it in a railway car for the story. You’re staying somewhere genuinely lovely that happens to have an incredible backstory.

Sourdough bread was waiting on the counter when we arrived. Apple pie overnight oats were in the fridge for morning. The Trans Canada Trail runs right behind the train, which means you can walk out the door and straight onto one of the best trails in the country. It is, in every sense of the word, a peaceful experience.

The Shamrock Train Suites are at the Shogomoc Railway Site in downtown Florenceville-Bristol. There are only two converted cars: Romancing the Rails for two people, and Adventure on the Rails for families or larger groups. If they’re booked when you go looking, do not despair. The Shamrock Suites property itself is stunning, and I say that having toured it. I wouldn’t hesitate for a second to book a room there. In fact, my next trip to Cape Breton is already going to include another night in Florenceville-Bristol, and the Shamrock is exactly where I’ll be staying.

Where to Eat: The Canopy and Sumac

There are two restaurants here, sharing one building, with two completely different personalities. Understanding that matters before you go.

The Canopy is upstairs: casual, warm, community first. This is where the town eats. Local ingredients, unpretentious, the kind of place that exists to serve the people who live here, not to impress visitors, though it absolutely will. The molasses wings alone are worth the stop. Molasses is deeply, historically an East Coast thing. It runs through the baking, the beans, the identity of this region in a way that people from away don’t always understand. On a chicken wing, done right, it is something else entirely. Divine is not too strong a word. And the rhubarb whiskey sour? Yeah, you’re going to want to order that.

Downstairs is Sumac, and this is where I need you to pay attention, because you’re going to hear this name dropped a lot in the coming months and years.

Sumac opened just after I left, but I was there early enough to speak with the project manager and get a sense of what was coming. The general manager has been brought in from Ireland. The chef is Indigenous. Nothing is being spared. What I got as a preview was the cheese plate: Pélerin Blue, Tomme de la Péninsule, dandelion honey, rhubarb, sourdough crostini. The dandelion honey is vegan and tastes exactly like the real thing. On cheese, at a table overlooking the Saint John River, it is one of the better bites I have had in recent memory.

The restaurant takes its name from the sumac trees growing wild along the riverbank just outside the door, harvested seasonally by the kitchen. The menu reads like someone who actually understands this place: Fundy scallops with fiddleheads, East Coast halibut with dulse relish, molasses Parker House rolls to start, rhubarb pavlova to finish. Thoughtful, generous, grounded. Nothing flashy. Everything intentional.

Mark my words: get here early. This restaurant is going to be on Canada’s 100 Best list and you’ll want to say you were there before being there was cool.

More Than a French Fry Capital: Things to Do in Florenceville-Bristol

Hartland Covered Bridge

The Hartland Covered Bridge was closed when we were there. Because, of course it was. That is the tax you pay for travelling in the shoulder season in Atlantic Canada, and I paid it with grace. Besides it gives me a reason to return.

I have it on good authority from locals though, that it will be open this summer, and I believe them, because this bridge has been standing since 1901 and is not about to be defeated by whatever was going on the day I arrived.

At 391 metres, it is the longest covered bridge in the world. It was originally built as an open-topped structure and covered in 1921 because covering a wooden bridge extends its life from roughly ten years to eighty. Turns out that was a pretty good call.

It is also, technically, a kissing bridge. Which brings me to something worth explaining.

If you’re planning your timing: come on New Brunswick Day long weekend in early August. The Big Bridge Fest runs August 1 to 4, and for those few days the bridge is closed to traffic entirely, which in this case is actually the point. You can walk the full 391 metres inside the bridge, catch live entertainment, and on the Monday, the Hartland Covered Bridge Market fills all 1,282 feet of it with local artisans, food vendors, and craft makers. There’s also a parade, an antique car show, and fireworks over the Saint John River. The locals were right. It sounds just perfect.

Potato World

Yes, there is a museum dedicated entirely to the potato. Yes, you should go. No, I will not be explaining myself further on that. You’re either down with a being a little silly or you’re not. If silly is your default, continue.

It costs $6 to get in. That is a very reasonable amount of money to learn that Florenceville-Bristol is the French Fry Capital of the World, that one third of the world’s frozen french fries come from the McCain Foods plant in this town, and that the potato has a more interesting history than you were probably giving it credit for.

But here’s the real draw: there is a potato gun. It costs $5 for three shots and you shoot at targets in the back. We shot the potato gun. We missed every target, save one. We laughed hysterically anyway.

A note about the potato gun, because accuracy matters: they no longer shoot actual potatoes. The cleanup, apparently, was not ideal. They now use a weighted sock designed to approximate the size, weight, and colour of a russet potato. I cannot tell you this diminished the experience in any way.

Covered Bridge Potato Chips and the Seasoning Shack

The Covered Bridge Chips factory burned down and had to relocate, which is genuinely sad news. But while they rebuild, they have gifted us the Seasoning Shack, and honestly it might be the better story anyway.

First things first: the retail store. Every single flavour Covered Bridge makes, plus merch, plus Storm Chips. If you are from anywhere east of Quebec you already know exactly what Storm Chips are and you are already reaching for your wallet. For the uninitiated: when a nor’easter threatens the East Coast, the first thing any self-respecting Maritime household does is stock up on chips. Not just any chips. Storm Chips. It is less a snack and more a cultural institution, and Covered Bridge owns that category.

But the Seasoning Shack is why you’re really here.

Forget a flight of wine. Forget a flight of beer. Welcome to the chip flight. For $2.99 you get a warm bag of potato chips and access to approximately sixty seasoning options. I counted, but don’t hold me to it. You mix your own. You choose your own adventure. I cannot tell you what combination I ended up with because I blacked out on the power of mixing my own seasonings and I regret nothing.

Factory tours will be back once the new facility is up and running. In the meantime, this is pretty damn good.

Noah’s Ark Cafe

This one requires a little context, because “cafe built like Noah’s Ark in a field in rural New Brunswick” sounds like a punchline, and it is not.

Pastor Paul G. Smith had a dream, literally a dream, of Noah’s Ark sitting in a field beside his church. He built it in 1991 at two thirds the size of the Biblical Ark. For 23 years it housed the School of the Spirit. When the school closed, the rooms became affordable housing. His daughter Robin opened Noah’s Ark Cafe inside in 2016 to serve the community. Paul also built six additional buildings on the same property, housing 27 apartments for people who needed them.

This is a family that has spent generations trying to feed and house people. The cafe is just the most recent expression of that.

I am not a religious person, but I know good people doing good work when I see it. You don’t need to share their faith to appreciate what this family has built, or to enjoy the coffee, the cinnamon buns, and the Big Boat breakfast in one of the most unexpectedly kitschy and wonderful backdrops you will find anywhere in New Brunswick. And if faith is your thing, know that they are absolutely doing the Lord’s work here.

And just for funsies, because I had to ask: this is not a full replica. It’s built at two thirds the size of the Biblical Ark. Which means if the original ever existed, the real thing would have dwarfed it considerably. Bigger than some of the newer cruise ships out there. Let that sink in.

Downriver Bev. Co.

Formerly Moonshine Creek, now operating as Downriver Bev. Co., and they have been busy.

Since I was driving, I deputized my 21 year old to taste test pretty much every flavour on my behalf. It made for an interesting car ride. No regrets.

The crowd favourite is the Sea Salt and Caramel Whisky, which is exactly what it sounds like and earns every bit of that reputation. But I came home with a different haul: rum, Chicken Bones Liqueur (yes, the candy, yes, in liqueur form, yes, it works), Peppermint Patty, and a Gingersnap made with Crosby’s molasses that I cannot wait to do something interesting with come Christmas.

The Crosby’s Gingersnap is the one to note specifically, because it ties everything together. The molasses that built New Brunswick’s food identity, in a bottle, made by a small craft distillery on Route 130. That’s a bottle you want to bring home, because it’s a tasty souvenir with a story attached.

Andrew and Laura McCain Art Gallery

You cannot talk about Florenceville-Bristol without talking about the McCains, and I don’t just mean the french fries.

The Andrew and Laura McCain Art Gallery sits right in the heart of town, admission is free, and the calibre of work showing on its walls when we visited belonged in any major city gallery. The exhibition was the work of Dianne Bos, a Canadian artist whose pinhole photography is held in the National Gallery of Canada. In Florenceville-Bristol. Free to walk in off the street.

But the gallery is really a symbol of something bigger. The McCain family built a global frozen food empire out of this small town and never left it behind. I didn’t hear a single bad word about them from anyone while I was there, which is not something you can say about many ultra-wealthy families. They give back, they show up, and it is clear they genuinely adore the community that helped build what they have. That just feels good to know.

The installation changes regularly so check the website before you go to see what’s on.

Florenceville-Bristol will tell you it’s the French Fry Capital of the World, and it is. But if that’s all you know about it, you don’t really know it. What I found here was a family that built an ark in a field and feeds people out of it. A distillery making liqueurs that reminds me of my east coast roots. A seasoning shack that will short-circuit your brain in the best possible way. A restaurant that belongs on a national best list. A covered bridge that has been making people slow down since 1901. And a family, the McCains, who built a global empire out of this small town on the Saint John River and never stopped giving back to the people who helped them do it.

This is so much more than a French Fry Capital.

I almost drove through it. Don’t make my mistake.

Your Florenceville-Bristol Questions, Answered

Have you been to Florenceville-Bristol? I want to hear what you found that I missed. Drop it in the comments.

Disclosure: My stay at the Shamrock Train Suites was arranged by New Brunswick Tourism. All other experiences on this trip were paid for independently, including $5 to shoot a potato gun. Money well spent.