New biz during pandemic

"More to explore” is a 10-part collaboration between Castanet and Travel Penticton, a follow up to the popular "Tourists in your own town" series. Watch for it every Monday morning.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to serve up dishes of uncertainty, two Penticton restaurants are reflecting on the experience of navigating their businesses through a global pandemic during the city’s peak season.

“You just pivot,” Cannery Brewing co-owner Patt Dyck recalled of the experience opening a brand new outdoor patio space in the midst of COVID-19, as provincial guidelines changed almost daily to protect both diners and staff.

“We were tied up in the middle of that,” she said, adding there was a lot of “back and forth” as they worked to re-design the new space.

“We were really not sure we were going to be able to do anything back (in the new space).”

Having received the City of Penticton’s blessing in January, the patio was originally designed to hold approximately 70 patrons with permanent washrooms, an outdoor games space as well as a stage for live music for fundraising events.

With social distancing guidelines and other measures in place, Dyck said the layout for the patio space has a more “temporary set up (than) originally planned,” but she’s “grateful we’ve been able to shift things around.”

And while COVID-19 has taught her and her staff how to be flexible and problem-solve when faced with unique challenges, Dyck said she’s  grateful for the local support and accommodating customers.

“We’re just grateful people are willing to come back and trust us,” she said. “We’re really grateful for that.”

It’s a sentiment Loki’s Garage co-owner Luke Walsh echoes, having opened the Front Street restaurant with Marcus Lenk and Alethea Trovao not only during the pandemic, but Penticton’s peak season.

“We’ve seen people go out of their way to eat somewhere local once a week,” he said of the community’s support.

And while early COVID-19 regulations closed dining rooms in the beginning, Walsh said opening the restaurant from a take-out model to patio seating and finally to brunch and full-menu gave staff the opportunity to really focus on “getting to know locals.”

“You have to look for the positives,” he said, adding a slow opening also gave them the chance to really finesse the menu.

But the pandemic hasn’t come without its challenges, with Walsh saying the team has really “come to embrace the chaos.”

“It’s not just happening to Loki’s Garage, it’s happening across the world. It’s a matter of rolling up your sleeves and figuring out how to make it work,” he said.