Patio season serves restaurateurs some hope

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This article was published 15/03/2021 (1646 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

King’s Head Pub owner Chris Graves finally has a reason to raise a glass.

After a year of dismal sales and lockdowns owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Exchange District business was finally bustling Saturday — and Graves has loosened pandemic restrictions and some early warm weather to thank.

Graves said the pub and restaurant on King Street had its busiest Saturday since last February, more than doubling it sales.

“It’s the first time — swear to God — first time we almost broke even in about eight months,” Graves said, adding that’s still not enough to sustain the business.

Saturday marked the first time in over four months that Manitobans from separate households could dine out together — even if it was only outdoors. New public health orders, which took effect on the weekend, permit restaurants and lounges to seat up to six people from different households at the same table, as long as it’s on a patio.

The King’s Head patio, which seats 35, was at capacity most of Saturday, Graves said. It was also the earliest the pub has opened its patio in years.

After closing just before St. Patrick’s Day last year, Graves is grateful the patio can operate this year. In fact, he expects more people outside than inside, given the limits on indoor dining to household members only.

“We’re looking at a balmy six or seven degrees on Wednesday,” Graves said. “I guarantee we’ll see some people partaking in the patio.”

“We had people sitting out on the patio (Sunday) night, it was zero degrees. It didn’t really matter. People are just happy,” he said.

At the end of last summer, there were 64 temporary patios licensed in the city. As of Monday afternoon, eight applications have been processed and approved. City officials hope restaurateurs take advantage of the licensing and expect to see a similar turnout to last year.

Earls St. Vital renewed their temporary patio from last year and will continue to host an extra 20 seats tacked on to their permanent patio.

“These temporary patio licences are great for more sales and keeping more people employed. It’s what we need right now,” said Earls Regional Director Ann Topp.

Earls has called their whole staff back to work at all three locations, with a plan to open the Main Street location on April 12, Topp said.

Stone Angel Brewing Co. reopened a week before the province eased patio restrictions.

“We were pretty ready to rock. We just had to add an extra server to the roster,” said owner Paul Clerkin. He had been anticipating the change in rules and was ready to pivot.

The patio at Stone Angel can currently host 47 people and was full for most of the day Saturday as well. But with the same-household mandate for indoor dining, Clerkin said the brewery likely won’t ever reach 50 per cent of the original capacity.

Clerkin says the warm weather has been a godsend for Stone Angel.

“It must have been 15 or 16 [degrees] on our patio,” he said, the architecture helped keep the patio even warmer than the temperature outside. “If we had been asked by Mother Nature what kind of spring we wanted after being closed for the winter, this was what we wanted.”

Clerkin said the restaurant has been closed for roughly six of the last 12 months, so an operating patio is critical for the business.

Dr. Jino Distasio, Urban Geography professor at the University of Winnipeg, says the restaurant industry will need the support of all three levels of government, and the community to rally and recover from the losses over the last year.

“We need to find innovative and entrepreneurial ways to safely open up our city as much as we can,” Distasio said. “When we can maximize outdoor space, it’s a good thing.”

fpcity@freepress.mb.ca