The ability of Burnaby businesses to expand their patios this summer has been an important lifeline for the handful who have been permitted to do so, says one brewery owner.
But serious concerns remain ahead of what could very well be a dark winter for the restaurant and pub industry, said Ben Coli, owner of Dageraad Brewing.
Beyond his own brewery, Coli expressed concern for the restaurant industry as a whole moving into the colder, wetter months of the year.
“A lot of restaurants have disappeared already, some quietly, but a lot of restaurants are already gone,” he said. “When the federal wage subsidy starts to wrap up and the federal commercial rent assistance starts to wrap up, we’re going to see more businesses fold, and I’m quite worried for the general state of the economy. … It’s going to be pretty hard to restart the economy when the businesses aren’t there to restart it.”
Burnaby city council voted in June to allow restaurant owners to expand their patios onto city-owned property or into on-site parking and to allow store owners to extend their displays into outdoor spaces.
According to the City of Burnaby website, seven businesses have so far been approved for the extensions. That includes Baci’s a Taste of Italy on Hastings Street, Cactus Club on Kingsway in Metrotown, Dageraad on Thunderbird Crescent, Eagle Creek at Burnaby Mountain on Halifax Street, Teamworks Brewing on William Street, Swiss Chalet on Lougheed Highway and Thumbs Up Hot Pot on Kingsway.
Coli said his business opened its expanded patio, which includes five picnic tables, at the end of June, and it has typically sat 15 to 20 people during busy hours.
Dageraad typically seats 50 inside, but Coli said that’s in a pretty tight space – “it was a cozy 50” – and physical distancing limits have dropped the tasting room down to just a few tables inside.
“So that (patio expansion) made a huge difference for us in a couple ways. It obviously does give us more space for more patrons,” Coli said. “But another thing I think that is maybe more important is that it’s more comfortable for a lot of people if you’re concerned about COVID exposure.”
So not only does it allow more seating, it draws more people who wouldn’t feel comfortable having a beer inside, even with the spaced-out tables.
That being said, Dageraad doesn’t rely on its tasting room for most of its revenues, as it sells beers in liquor stores and to other restaurants.
But keg sales to businesses have dropped, he said, noting some of the brewery’s customers never reopened. The ones that have remained opened are slower than before, as well, he said.
An increase in take-home beer sales has balanced that out, to some degree, but Coli said he’s worried going into the winter.
“Winter is always a slower time for breweries. People drink more beer when the sun’s shining, and then our tasting room is going to slow to a crawl, I imagine, when the winter comes,” he said. “I imagine restaurants are going to slow down a lot when the rain starts falling.”
For his own expanded patio, Coli said he hopes the provincial and local authorities extend his permits beyond the current Oct. 31 end date. That said, he acknowledges he’ll only really be able to take advantage of it on the handful of sunny days between November and March, and even then, it would likely just be a few brave, well-bundled souls.
“But more importantly, I think, I want to keep this patio in place for when March rolls around and people actually want to be outside again,” he said. “It’s becoming pretty clear that this thing, we’re not going to have it beaten by Christmastime or something like that.”
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