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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Pub regulars vow brawl won't get them down

By: Melissa Martin

Posted: 04/4/2010 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

As the first punches flew outside the Lo Pub on Monday night, Jack Jonasson watched with horror, then heartbreak: "Oh my God," he thought. "Oh my God."

But on Thursday afternoon, three days after the headline-grabbing brawl that sent four people to hospital with stab wounds, Jonasson started fighting back: In an emotional Facebook message, the Lo Pub manager urged fans to come to the venue on Thursday afternoon to renew the positive vibe.

And so, before the workday even ended on the busiest bar night of the year, more than 100 supporters packed the pub to hoist a pint, toss some darts, and hold their Lo pride to the light. "Some people are looking for any excuse to diss the whole downtown. And a part of me doesn't want them to know how good it is," laughed Lo regular Tara Wiebe, 40, as she quaffed a pint at the party. "This is the best pub in town."

That's exactly the rep that Jonasson set out to build when he launched the Lo more than two years ago. Which is why the fight -- the first he's seen near the pub -- was so devastating to him; it's also why he's now a man on a mission.

Jonasson, 34, may not have been able to prevent the brawl, which flared between a group of first-time visitors to the hip Kennedy Street venue. But he's sure as hell not going to let it happen again, he said.

"We've put long, difficult, sweaty hours into turning this place into something that is changing the neighbourhood for the better," Jonasson said, noting that he's planning on launching meetings with downtown groups to talk security. "Maybe in some ways this is a blessing in disguise... It's re-energized my passion for making this place as good as it can be, and my passion for seeing downtown become a better place to live, work and play."

It already is better, said fans at the Thursday gathering. Christian Cassidy, 42, works across the street from the Lo and the adjoining HI hostel. He remembers when the joint was a ramshackle hotel and beer vendor spilling rowdy drunks into the street by mid-afternoon. "It really pulled down the area," Cassidy said.

He went to the old watering-hole once, and only once; but at the Lo, he's a regular. "This is what downtown redevelopment is all about," Cassidy said, nodding at the crowd that filled the Lo on Thursday afternoon.

melissa.martin@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition April 4, 2010 A57

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