Calabogie, Ont. restaurants adapting with winter patios

CALABOGIE, ONT. -

At the Redneck Bistro in Calabogie, Ont., all the chairs inside are stacked away, but there are still seats to be found outside.

The local eatery set up their outdoor winter patio Thursday, after the province reintroduced restrictions to shut down indoor dining. It's a modest set up that includes six seats spread across two tables, covered by a tent with patio heaters. It's the bistro's attempt to continue providing what service they can.

Redneck Bistro's winter patio in Calabogie, Ont. (Dylan Dyson/CTV News Ottawa)

"We're just doing our best to accommodate our customers within the restrictions and guidelines that have been set for us," says Jordan Gorra, a waitress at the Redneck Bistro, and Calabogie local.

Saturday posed a challenge for the restaurant, with the region waking up to a frostbite warning and temperatures only rising to about -14 degrees around lunchtime. But Gorra says they are still trying to cater to their customers who enjoy the cold, such as snowmobilers, skiers, and ice fishers who use the local trails and waterways.

"It's definitely frustrating, but as a business I feel like we've done a really good job, of keeping our clientele coming out," says Gorra. "We really just wanted to give them a place where they could come and take a break. Get off the trail for a bit, warm up, and get something good to eat."

Just across the street at Calabogie Brewing Co., their winter patio set up is nothing new, but it's becoming even more popular.

"We always get snowmobiles up here in Calabogie, lots of skiers, they're already dressed for the outdoors and we've had the fire pits for years," says Tracy Fredricks, the taproom manager at Calabogie Brewing. "It's just something that we've expanded on, being closed inside."

Travelling not far from Ottawa, Martin O'Malley spent well over an hour enjoying the cold beer, colder temperatures, but also a warm fire.

"You want to be able to do stuff, we like doing stuff outdoors as well," O'Malley tells CTV News Ottawa. "So, to find a place, yes, with the more limited options right now, you look at things and try to find stuff that is still open that you can still go and do."

While winter patio setups serve to keep restaurants open and workers employed in the face of lockdowns, they also grow the tourist attraction that is the Ottawa Valley.

Enjoying a drink at the winter patio at Calabogie Brewing Co., in Calabogie, Ont. (Dylan Dyson/CTV News Ottawa)

Spencer Whitney and Emily Pritchard are visiting Calabogie from Oshawa for a birthday weekend, and found out about Calabogie Brewing Co.'s winter patio on Instagram.

"We already kind of knew we wanted to do stuff outdoors, but it kind of sucked with the restaurants closing," says Whitney. "We thought we were going to do this restaurant or that one, but now we have to do take out so whatever."

The couple says they finished a hike at the Eagle's Nest lookout trail, and were looking to make the most of their weekend despite the closures and cold temperatures.

"You've got to enjoy it some way or another, says Pritchard. "You can't go in and dine so might as well enjoy a beer outside."

"If it wasn't for the fires it would be kind of cold," adds Whitney, "but it's good, it's worth it."