At some point in the near future, the Wendy’s Restaurant on Weber Street in Waterloo will close for four months for a metamorphosis.
When it reopens, the restaurant will remain but it will also share its space with an LGBTQ2 franchise known as the The Well.
John Ribson currently owns more than two dozen Wendy’s franchises across southern Ontario, including the one on Weber, and also owns the quickly expanding chain of The Well bars.
He said he has been looking to move the Wendy’s restaurant for a few years now, seeking a smaller location to place the burger joint as the space is more than twice what is needed.
“There was nothing. So the landlord there said that he would sign another term lease with us,” Ribson explained. “I’m like, ‘Well, can we demise it? Like it’s way too big for Wendy’s.’”
The landlord passed on that idea so Ribson decided it would probably be better to split the space with his new enterprise.
“It’s right near the university. It’ll be more of a restaurant-loungey type of space for the community,” he explained.
He said the Wendy’s will shrink to about a third of the space while the bar will operate in the remainder.
Ribson was unable to provide a timeline for when the transformation will take place as he has been working on getting approval for his proposed changes for some time.
“I think, from what I’m hearing, we’re in the last step,” he said.
The Well Restaurant & Bars have been springing up fast since Ribson first decided to launch the business in 2018.
There are locations in Hamilton, Toronto and Windsor as well as one which just opened in London with a second bar in the works for Toronto as well.
Ribson said he came up with the idea when he was in his hometown of Hamilton to see a Ticats game.
“We were driving our old street, on Wellington Street, and this building was for sale, it was the old Wellington House,” the diehard Ticat fan said. “And when I was a kid, I used to sell papers in there.
“Hamilton hasn’t had any (gay) bars for quite some time. So I said to my sister ‘I am going to look into that. Maybe that would be a good spot for a bar.”
He ended up buying the building in 2018, which needed a massive renovation, with the intention of opening a bar there.
The restauranter said there were delays in construction and the pandemic hit so in the meantime a spot opened up in Toronto as the franchise’s initial launch.
When the Well opens in Waterloo, it will be the first bar geared towards the LGBTQ2 community in the region in a number of years.
With a similar situation in other smaller cities across southern Ontario, Ribson saw a void in the market and thought franchising out a bar like the Well might be a fun way to keep busy during his retirement.
He said it has been very well-received everywhere they have opened, with the London franchise having a better showing last weekend than in Toronto, where the bar is located in the Village.
“People in these communities are dying for a safe space to go to,” he said. “And we’re just happy to be able to provide that for them and hope that the business model works, that people in these communities support them and everybody will be happy.”
The plans for the Waterloo bar will differ slightly as it will be close to two universities it will offer more pub-style food but some of the same entertainment ideas will be offered.
In London, the lineup includes drag bingo as well as musical performances while in Hamilton they also offer karaoke and paint night.