Brewery’s new patio designed to add spark to Exchange District

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This article was published 19/08/2022 (1172 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

When Kevin Selch settled his brewing company in Winnipeg’s Exchange District nearly six years ago, he hoped to help the community spark new life. He thinks his latest addition will do just that.

Little Brown Jug announced that its William Street location has opened a new two-level patio that aims to enhance interaction and connection.

“The question people always have is, ‘What is the downtown we have and what is it all about?’ The Exchange District is already vibrant and there’s a lot going on, but I think the investment in this kind of patio is a testament to looking at what the Exchange could be as a local neighbourhood. It’s about creating unique spaces that are going to draw people in,” Selch said.

Some of the features on the new patio include overhead blue sails to provide shade, built-in lighting, comfortable and colourful furniture, Virginia creeper vines and a three-metre painted cinderblock wall to block out the wind and traffic noise.

Selch got the inspiration to add the wall while he was in California.

“The whole place has a bit of a Palm Springs or Miami vibe. It makes it feel like a private, secret garden in the middle of our Exchange and I think that’s pretty special,” he said.

The company doubled its capacity for the patio by taking away some of its parking lot and can now welcome roughly 100 people at a time. They will host live music at the space every Friday night, but outside of business hours, it won’t be reserved for the company.

“We’re looking to see how we can use this space to do fun and interesting things. A community gym is doing a spinning class out there. We really want to open it up to do fun things like that with it.”

That type of community partnership is something Selch said is important to growing the area.

“We try to use our space in all kinds of unique ways to benefit the community. We’re not looking to monetize that as much, we’re just looking to build that connection and because we’ve seen the success of that in the Exchange and in our space already, it makes sense to increase it by having more space that can handle a larger capacity and bring that to the next level.”

With the addition of the new patio, Little Brown Jug has extended its Sunday hours and is now closed only on Monday.

The space is dog- and kid-friendly and is now open to the public at 336 William Ave.

bryce.hunt@freepress.mb.ca