Jeremy Klaszus
Paul Deol says Bridgelanders want ‘half-decent food and a place to have a few drinks after work’
Community cries out for its own pub
Why doesn’t Bridgeland have a pub? For many who live or work in the revitalized inner-city community this isn’t a casual question. It’s a burning even aggravating one. Here’s a thriving neighbourhood that has nearly everything: a candy store coffee shops a hair salon a dentist upscale Italian resturants a corner grocery store a sushi bar a Middle Eastern restaurant a bakery and so on. All good things but no space to sit back and enjoy a pint.
“When you think about it we’re the only neighbourhood in the city without a pub” says Bridgelander Yousef Traya. Across the river Inglewood has the Ironwood the Hose & Hound and Swans; Bridgeland has nothing. “The nearest pub is way up Edmonton Trail or downtown” says Jacqueline Arling planning director for the Bridgeland-Riverside Community Association. “If we’re trying to create a livable walkable community one of the clear amenities that people like and that build community is a local pub.”
Ask around and almost everyone in Bridgeland seems keen on the idea of a local pub. “I think it would do so well here” says Jessica Burylo another Bridgelander. She works in the neighbourhood and says that with all the young singles and couples moving into the community a local watering hole would have plenty of patrons. “Come on it’s little Italy” she says with a grin. “We all like to drink.”
At Piazza Wines & Spirits on First Ave. N.E. — Bridgeland’s main drag and the likely location for a local pub — owner Paul Deol says about 90 per cent of his customers say they’d like to see some kind of local drinking establishment. “They just want some half-decent food and a place to have a few drinks after work” says Deol.
The explanation for why there’s no pub in Bridgeland is frustratingly simple. If it was because of zoning regulations Bridgeland’s dryness could be blamed on the city. Or if the community association was fighting to keep pubs out that group could be tagged with NIMBYism. But no: “I think the community association would be highly supportive of a pub” says Arling.
The simple reason there’s no pub in Bridgeland is that nobody’s started one. “There’s nothing that would prevent it in the zoning” says Laurie Kimber co-ordinator of the city’s land-use bylaw. A Bridgeland pub would have to be relatively small — 75 square metres or less — and comply with other city regulations but nobody is calling for anything huge. “It would have to be a very personal family owned and operated place because that’s what Bridgeland is” says Burylo.
A few noble souls have tried to get pubs into Bridgeland. One entrepreneur recently applied for what Arling calls an “upscale” restaurant-pub on the ground floor of the Bridges condo development but the project met resistance from residents upstairs. It never went anywhere.
Cowboy singer and Bridgelander Tim Hus also looked at the possibility of starting a pub in the community after A Bar Named Sue a Beltline venue run by one of his friends shut its doors last year. “We thought we could kind of kill two birds with one stone and move it to Bridgeland” says Hus. “We’d have a new location and there’d be a bar in Bridgeland. But we weren’t able to make it happen either.” Hus says that when you don’t own a property it’s tough to get a lease. “If a landlord has several offers for a space a bar would be the last one that he will be keen on” says Hus. “Almost anything else will win out.”
Of course not everyone’s begging for a pub to move into the neighbourhood. Nawaf Traya owner of Tazza Grill & Deli says it would be a risky business venture partly because of the community’s close proximity to downtown. “Nobody wants to take the chance” he says. Traya and others are concerned that a neighbourhood pub could attract the clientele of the recently closed Cecil Hotel from downtown. However Nawaf’s son Yousef doesn’t share these concerns. “Every neighbourhood needs a pub” he says. “It wouldn’t be a bad thing.”
The area’s alderman Joe Ceci says the building that recently housed Baskerville Books on First Ave. N.E. could make a good location even though it’s currently being used as a condo sales centre. “Eventually they’re not going to need that sales office so somebody could make a go of that” says Ceci.
