Popular patio pop-ups expanding this summer

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This article was published 18/02/2021 (2037 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg’s pandemic success story from the summer of 2020 — the boom in patios — will be growing in 2021.

The Beer Can, which took over a vacant lot on Main Street between the Fortune Block and the Winnipeg Hotel last June, will move to a new location for this summer, a spokesperson said Tuesday.

Times Change(d) High & Lonesome Club, which is located in the Fortune Block at the corner of Main and St. Mary Avenue, will take over the Beer Can’s former location and rename it Times Change(d) Outside, according to a post on the nightclub’s Facebook account.

Blank Canvas Beer Co. founder Brad Chute launched the Beer Can pop-up patio project last spring when COVID-19 positive cases dwindled to a trickle in Manitoba. It provided a safe space for Winnipeggers to enjoy a warm day or evening outdoors and sip a locally brewed beer while maintaining social-distancing standards set by the province.

Chute turned to Times Change(d) owner John Scoles to provide advice on the project. Later in the summer, a stage was built for local performers, ranging from rock bands to dance troupes, to entertain crowds of no more than 50 people.

The pop-up closed in mid-October when the weather turned cold.

The Beer Can spokesperson said the pop-up’s plan was always to use the Main Street location for one year only, and that it will find a new venue and a new partner for 2021.

In the Facebook post, the Times Change(d) said it has teamed up with bourbon brand Jim Beam for a covered stage and a cocktail bar for 2021, and Modern Electric Lunch, another Fortune Block tenant, to provide food.

Winnipeg restaurants were forced to close after the COVID-19 pandemic spread to Manitoba last March. A number of Winnipeg bars and restaurants later built or expanded patios when the province eased restrictions for patios prior to allowing indoor eating spaces to open for business.

The city also eased its patio regulations and began allowing restaurants or microbreweries and distilleries to set up temporary patios for the summer. Other pop-up patios emerged across the city in 2020 in response, including the Bijou Patio, which served food and beverages from Exchange District eateries and breweries from its location adjacent to Old Market Square, and the Cargo Bar at Assiniboine Park.

alan.small@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter:@AlanDSmall