BROCKVILLE -- With bar and restaurant patios set to open on Friday, a Brockville brewery hopes their brand new one will be approved by the city just in time for the weekend.
The 1000 Islands Brewing Company submitted its application in the city last week, even before patio openings were announced in Phase 2 of the Ontario reopening plan during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We kind of got a feeling that’s where things would go and the city’s been working with us to rush everything so were ready.” said Owain Devlin, Brewmaster at 1000 Islands Brewing.
“Then we found out we were allowed a patio, outdoor seating (from the province), so we’ve kind of had to build a patio from scratch in short-term notice.” he added.
The city has final say on the finished product and there are a number of stipulations to meet.
“They wanted to see the aesthetics of the patio, make sure it fit the downtown decor here, make sure that we were adhering to fire safety codes as well as all the new social distancing regulations that have come in from the health unit,” Devlin said.
Tables will be two metres apart and patrons will be given a two-hour maximum to enjoy their meal and cold brews.
Rob Nolan is the Director of Economic Development for the City of Brockville and said multiple checks have been completed, including by the Fire Marshal and Brockville’s operations department.
“The city has a couple of applications that have come in already and we’re working very hard in processing and getting the approvals that they need to get opened as soon as possible,” Nolan said.
“The process is a little more complicated because we have to check with the health unit and make sure they are ok with it. They are actually putting together some guidelines now for restaurants that are going to be operating patios that will make sure they are maintaining social distancing and other rules,” he added.
The patio in front of 1000 Islands Brewing will include two parking spaces in front of the building, which is not a problem according to Nolan.
“The City of Brockville actually introduced flexible streets so that allows for us to have to use the parking spaces for pedestrian walkways which will allow the restaurants to use the actual sidewalk as the patio,” he said.
There are no curbs along King Street, so it is easier for pedestrians to navigate.
Around the corner at the Keystorm Pub, their patio is ready to open as well, a staple at the establishment for 17 years.
Owner Dan Thompson said they’re ready for Friday.
“We’re good and ready to go. We’re just polishing up the furniture and making sure it’s all sanitized and clean for tomorrow morning,” Thompson said.
“We’re absolutely excited. Its been a long journey as they say but staff is all excited and customers are all excited and I think everybody in general is really happy we have an opportunity to open the doors safely.....We’re ready to get back to business and have some fun for sure.” he added.
The pub will also have two-metre restrictions and tables and a reservations only policy.
“We’ve gone to a reservation only policy and were going to give our customers an hour and a half with their table. That gives us a two hour window per table so we have enough time to get clean the table and sanitize it down, according to the guidelines,” Thompson added.
The pub will open Friday for breakfast, and dinner reservations have already sold out. There are a few open spots still available on Saturday and Sunday.
Back at 1000 Islands Brewing, work continues on the patio, with Devlin overseeing the process.
“There is going to be some growing pains because we obviously didn’t have a patio before this and we’re running on a skeleton crew,” he noted.
“We want to make sure our cooks and bartenders and servers are kept safe as well. As long as were safe and everybody treats us with the same kind of safety in mind, it is going to be great. All of our staff are going to be wearing masks and everything is going to be wiped down,” Devlin said.
For an establishment that just opened in 2019, he says the people of Brockville have been great and he looks forward to serving them again.
“Brockville has welcomed us with open arms. It’s been great. We’ve had a few calls for reservations already and unfortunately I haven’t been able to put anything concrete in because we’re just waiting to hear from the city,” Devlin added.
