On August 1, a crowd turned out to Wind Vineyards on Moneta Road to hear Aaron Tippin play a full band set under the summer sky. Same afternoon, a hot air balloon crew set up nearby for tethered rides. It was, by the winery's own count, part of a stretch that pulled something like 40,000 people through the gates last year. And yet if you drove past the property today looking for the tasting room, you still would not find one. Construction is underway. It has been underway, in one form or another, since the plans were announced back in the spring of 2024.
That gap between the crowd and the building is the real story of Moneta this summer. While one of the lake's most anticipated openings keeps sliding into "later this year," the actual restaurant map around it has already been redrawn twice over. Longtime spots have closed. New ones have taken their place. A food trailer that opened with fanfare last year is now for sale. None of it waited for Wind Vineyards to finish anything.
Two Years of "Later This Year"
When Tyler and Ashley Wind first pitched their second location to Bedford County, the plan sounded straightforward: a farm winery on roughly 40 acres off Moneta Road, a sister operation to their established Wind Vineyards at Laurel Grove in Tappahannock, with a tasting room, a performance stage, and a full calendar of events. County planners approved the special use permit, and the Winds told local reporters they hoped to have a temporary tasting room running by the summer of 2024.
That did not happen on schedule. By the winery's own account, health issues pushed the build out by roughly a year. Construction on the permanent tasting room is now described as in full swing, with hopes of welcoming guests seven days a week later in 2026. In the meantime, the events never stopped. The 2026 calendar already ran through a Spring Monster Truck Show in mid-May, a rodeo at the end of May, a tractor pull in early June, the Aaron Tippin concert and hot air balloon festival on August 1, and a Labor Day rodeo scheduled for September 5, with a fall rodeo penciled in for October. Plans for a haunted hayride and a corn maze this fall are still being worked out. Even the property's marquee visual, a 35-foot corkscrew sculpture the Winds have said would rank among the world's largest, has yet to show up along the roadside.
None of this is a criticism of the Winds, who are candid on their own channels about the delays and about how much the events depend on word of mouth to keep going. It is just a useful reminder for anyone living nearby: at the lake, a business can be simultaneously not finished and already enormously popular. The building is not the point. The gathering is.
The Map That Redrew Itself Anyway
While attention stayed fixed on when Wind Vineyards would finally open its doors, the rest of Moneta's dining scene kept moving without asking permission.
A few names that used to anchor a Saturday plan are gone. Bottles & Bites at Mariners Landing will not reopen for the 2026 season. Owner Tiffany Silva is folding that energy into her other resort venues instead, Tiff's Lakefront and Bruno's Clubhouse Bistro, where the live music and patio game nights guests loved at Bottles & Bites are continuing under a different roof. My Way Bakery at Westlake Corner has closed as well. And after nearly 25 years in Bedford County, Hickory Hill Vineyards wrapped up operations when its owners retired in 2025, closing out a run that predates almost everything else on this list.
In their place, a different set of names has moved in.
- La Casa Toscana opened just north of Bridgewater Plaza, in the space that was previously Tuscan Tavern and later Tony & Friends, serving house-made pastas, seafood, and steak alongside a separate bar area with TVs for a more casual visit.
- Pollo Tropiko took over at Westlake Corner with a fast-casual, Latin-inspired menu built around marinated, flame-grilled chicken and classic sides.
- Margie's Coffee Spot is about to make its own entrance, with a grand opening and sip-and-shop event planned for Saturday, August 22.
- Curbside Coffees & Cravings, the Downtown Moneta food trailer that opened to strong reviews in 2025, is now listed for sale, with hopes among regulars that a new owner keeps the coffee and sandwich counter running.
Line these up next to the Wind Vineyards timeline and the pattern gets clear. A splashy, well-funded project can take two years and counting to open its doors while still drawing tens of thousands of visitors to unfinished ground. A modest bakery or a food trailer, meanwhile, can open, build a following, and close or change hands inside a single season. Both things are true of this market at the same time, and neither one is really about Wind Vineyards at all. It is about how fast the lake's small-business layer turns over compared to its big, headline projects.
What's Actually on the Calendar This Week
If you are trying to plan an actual weekend around all of this, here is what's on the near-term calendar as of this week:
| Date | What | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Sat, Aug 22 | Margie's Coffee Spot grand opening, sip and shop | Margie's Coffee Spot, Moneta |
| Sun, Aug 23 | Battle of the Bands, benefiting SML Good Neighbors | Mango's Bar & Grill, Moneta |
| Fri, Aug 28 | Nash Angeles live | 16430 Booker T Washington Highway |
| Sat, Aug 29 | Dock Wizards live | Portside Grill & Bar, Moneta |
| Sat, Aug 29 | Travis Reigh Band live | 16430 Booker T Washington Highway |
A few weeks further out, the Smith Mountain Lake Wine Festival is set for September 26 at Bernard's Landing Resort, a reminder that wine tourism at the lake was never dependent on any one winery finishing its build.
The Lake Doesn't Wait for Big Announcements
The takeaway for anyone who already calls this stretch of Bedford County home is not that Wind Vineyards is behind schedule. Big agritourism builds take time, and this one has been transparent about why. The takeaway is that the neighborhood's actual rhythm, the coffee counters, the family-run kitchens, the weekend live music, moves on a completely different clock. It closes, reopens, and rebrands faster than any single headline project can break ground.
If you have been holding off on trying La Casa Toscana or Pollo Tropiko because you were waiting to hear whether Wind Vineyards had finally opened, you can stop waiting. Go try them now. The tasting room will get there when it gets there, and in the meantime the rodeo tickets, the balloon rides, and the Saturday concerts are already selling regardless.
That is the version of Moneta worth knowing if you live here: not a single grand opening to circle on the calendar, but a running list of small changes that add up faster than any one announcement suggests.
If you are thinking about what a home near this stretch of Smith Mountain Lake actually looks like day to day, not just on a listing sheet, Amy Carter has spent decades watching this exact corner of Bedford County change one storefront at a time. Reach out to schedule a free consultation whenever you are ready to talk through what living here really involves.
