A group of Burnaby diners say tears will be shed on Dec. 27 as the Burnaby location of Swiss Chalet closes down forever as the company leaves British Columbia.
The decision follows recent closures at locations in Kelowna, the Tri-Cities and Victoria.
Burnaby was the last seller of the beloved Chalet Sauce, but end of the month will be the “swan song” for customers.
“This was our place,” Terri B. told the NOW. “My seniors group loved to meet her for lunch after one of our bus trips. You get used to a place and the staff and the food and stick with it. It feels like home and so you keep coming on back. I’ll be very sad to see it go.”
"We plan on being there at the end to say goodbye to all of the nice staff," said Phil T. "They need to know how much they mean to us."
Customers the NOW spoke to on the weekend say the staff are a big reason why they have stayed so loyal.
“It’s heartbreaking,” said Gladys, a Burnaby senior who contacted the NOW. “I’ve been coming here for a long time. My ladies group has our monthly meetings here. It’s a part of our lives. The staff are just so wonderful.”
Swiss Chalet is just one of several food businesses that have closed in recent months.
The Study pub on Burnaby Mountain on the campus of Simon Fraser University was closed during most of the pandemic, but then reopened in September as in-person classes resumed. But since then, it closed down again as business stayed slow. The hope is that it’s just temporary.
Also closed is Chez Meme Baguette Bistro, a beloved Fresh lunch shop that had a solid core of fans who are speaking out about the Burnaby Heights eatery.
This follows the recent closure of Zeus, a popular Greek restaurant on Hastings near Alpha. The owners of Zeus renovated the place and rebranded it, but went out of business.
Other restaurants are just hanging on right now. Even though many pandemic restrictions have been lifted, some restaurants haven’t seen business return to pre-pandemic levels.
And they are demanding more federal government support.
Canadian Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland has touted her government’s legislation aimed at helping businesses hit hard by COVID-19.
Bill C-2 includes money for different programs and could provide a lifeline if the Omicron variant prompts government restrictions or adds to public fears about going to restaurants.
For example, the Tourism and Hospitality Recovery Program aims to help those sectors with subsidies of up to 75% for wages and rent, as long as recipient businesses have suffered a revenue plunge of at least 40% year-over-year.
Hoteliers like the bill because many of their ventures have suffered severe sales declines. Many restaurant owners, in contrast, have fared better, and say the legislation should have a lower revenue-loss threshold.
“We’re down about 35% year over year,” said The Birds & The Beets owner Matt Senecal-Junkeer, who operates two Vancouver locations.
“Our losses are well beyond our ability to absorb. There’s got to be some give – either our landlord has got to cut us a break on rent, which seems unlikely, or the reality is that we probably will have to look at walking away from a pretty huge investment that we put in the space. We expected to be here for about 10 years to get some payback.”
Senecal-Junkeer said his unprofitable restaurants could close by February or March if government support does not arrive.
Senecal-Junkeer said he might have been in a better situation to get aid if his five-year-old restaurant business had done worse last year. However, he said, he pulled out all the stops to try to generate as much revenue as possible.
“I certainly can’t imagine playing to lose in business, but the current formula would reward something like that,” he told Glacier Media. “I also think of the many marginally profitable pivots we undertook last year – groceries, delivery – which were spurred in large part to find work for remaining staff.”
- With additional reporting by Glen Korstrom
