REGINA – The patio at Leopold’s Tavern is officially open, says partner and manager Greg Hooker.
“Sunday we had a full patio,” he said.
While it could dip to just one or two degrees by this weekend, people are anxious to take advantage of spring temperatures right now.
“This is the first day our patio’s open,” said Adam Sperling, owner of Slow Brewpub. “It’s beautiful outside and we’ve been waiting for spring so long.”
Sperling also owns La Bodega and its five-level patio is set to open this coming weekend, once all the snow melts.
There’s still snow on the patio at the Cathedral Freehouse, but the manager isn’t concerned about it deterring customers.
“There are people who sit outside when it’s plus six because it’s like, ‘oh, it’s not minus 40’,” chuckled David Waller, Freehouse general manager.
“It just makes sense – you go to any other North American city downtown and there’s just patios everywhere,” said Niall O’Hanlon, owner of O’Hanlon’s Irish Pub.
O’Hanlon’s has been looking to expand their popular patio for four years but its had a few setbacks with getting city approval of the design.
The city has now allowed the restaurant and bar to purchase the property at the front of the building. Soon the patio will extend across neighbouring restaurants Michi and The Copper Kettle and will be able to seat up to 200 people.
O’Hanlon is still waiting on heated canopies from Italy, but says once all the parts arrive, it should be a one-day construction project – hopefully completed within the next two months.
“It’s good for business and it’s good for Regina too. Anybody staying in the hotels, they look out and see a bunch of nice patios downtown, it kind of promotes the image of the city,” he said.
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