British Columbia’s bars and restaurants have high hopes for their first St. Patrick’s Day virtually unencumbered by COVID-19 restrictions since the pandemic broke out in 2020.
In Vancouver’s Chinatown, the Irish Heather geared up Thursday for what owner Sean Heather said would be a week’s worth of business on a weeknight.
“We are very fortunate to have this kind of day in a very quiet month, it’s a real shot in the arm,” he told Global News.
“We’re fully booked. We have a few spaces for lunch and a few spaces for the evening. We’ll probably have about 600 people through the door, and that’s a lot of business. People will be spending freely and looking to have a good time.”
In 2020, health officials ordered all bars in the City of Vancouver to close on the holiday, with just one day’s notice.
The following day, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry extended that order province-wide.
“At the time we didn’t know if the world was ending. People didn’t know what the hell was going on,” Heather said.
B.C. Restaurant and Foodservices Association President and CEO Ian Tostenson said businesses are expecting their first real opportunity to bounce back, after nearly all the pandemic restrictions have been lifted.
Capacity limits for bars and restaurants were dropped in February and B.C.’s mask mandate was lifted earlier this week. The province’s vaccine passport remains in effect until April 8.
He described St. Patrick’s Day 2021 as “muted,” but said the combination of the event and a Canucks game in Vancouver are expected to produce big crowds.
“I don’t think we even thought the industry would be existing two years later, it’s a miracle,” he said.
“Compared to a normal day, this will be 100 per cent of the revenue a bar or lounge would normally see on a Thursday … restaurants will pick up the incremental side, people will go to a restaurant first and a bar later, so it’s really exciting. For a lot of people it will be their first true coming out.”
Vancouver police said they were deploying weekend-level staffing ahead of what was expected to be a busy night.
“We do want people to go about their partying responsibly,” Const. Tania Visintin said. “We will have extra officers deployed along the Granville Entertainment District as well as in our Gastown Entertainment District.”
Visintin urged anyone going out on the town to plan ahead and ensure they have a safe ride home.
Back at the Irish Heather, despite a mood of cautious optimism, there remains concern that restrictions could still return should the pandemic take a turn for the worse. Despite that, Heather said St. Patrick’s Day 2022 is a chance to reflect on what’s kept them going through two difficult years.
“(It’s) a time to be thankful for what we have and that we’re still here, we were able to take our business, move it to a new neighbourhood, cut our rent in half, and position ourselves to survive,” he said.
“We did that through using our heads, but also through the support of our customer base, so we have to be thankful for that.”
— With files from Global’s Kristen Robinson