With temperatures in the 20s, it’s perfect patio weather and Penticton restaurants need our help.
Luckily, there’s more than 30 patio options to soak up the sunshine on around the city.
For Jason Mathews, Slackwater Brewing’s general manager, this warm weather comes just in time after that cold front saw fewer people braving patios last week.
“The weather is looking amazing for the weekend. We are open on both patios — word hasn’t quite got out yet about the rooftop patio that we offer but it’s a great space high above the traffic,” he said. “We had a great Easter long weekend but the weather took a dive. We aren’t doing as well as we could if the taproom was open but we are all making that same sacrifice right now.”
Some restaurants aren’t as lucky as Slackwater and don’t have a patio option, relying on takeout solely or just closing altogether after indoor dining was restricted March 29.
That’s where the city is stepping in for the 100 to 200 block of Martin Street and creating patio space for places like Pasta Factory by turning the sidewalk into seating areas.
“We are doing all we can to help out businesses right now,” said the city’s director or development services Anthony Haddad. “We will be moving bollards to the curbside to give restaurants patio space or extra seating areas.”
Slackwater will now be able to extend their street level patio too.
“We really want this whole downtown area to be successful, to draw people in to dine in a safe and enjoyable manner,” said Mathews.
Travel Penticton has made it easy for you to find your favourite patio spot. They’ve created an online list of patios, restaurants that do take out, offering menus, hours and even pictures of the patios so you can know where your next meal is at.
Check out the Penticton’s Patio list.
“Our tourism and hospitality businesses in Penticton are a tough and resilient bunch! I think everyone in the community should be extremely proud to have such dedicated and passionate people giving their all to keep going,” said Thom Tischik, executive director of Travel Penticton.
“We all need to chip-in and support our businesses in Penticton, from restaurants, craft breweries, wineries, activity operators, retailers, the list goes on and on. We need to keep supporting these amazing people so we all can pull through the next few months.”
Dr. Bonnie Henry extended the ban on indoor dining likely into May long weekend with COVID-19 variant cases skyrocketing throughout B.C.
Small business owners like Lucky’s Pet Supply’s Chrystina Barnard have been doing their part to support local eateries. She has gone on a 19-day patio crawl, posting pictures of her meals and experience to Penticton Facebook pages to promote local food.
READ MORE: Penticton foodie commits to 19-day patio crawl in Penticton