Long weekend revellers soak up sun while keeping distance

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This article was published 15/05/2020 (1588 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It was a Victoria Day long weekend like no other: there was both sunshine and physical distancing.

On Friday, The Forks Market reopened with a soft launch, welcoming visitors back to the historic site after being closed for almost two months. Although the parkade was barricaded, motorists trickled into the other available lots.

An attendant greeted visitors walking in to the market hall with a spritz of sanitizer on their hands. Portions of the building were closed off with dividers, funnelling guests toward the open vendors and retailers, then back outdoors to the outdoor patio area operated by The Common.

Sara Stasiuk, a spokeswoman for The Forks, said the reopening has gone smoothly. 

“There’s been people here, but not too many,” said Stasiuk.

“The thing with The Forks is that no matter if we were open or closed, there were going to be people here on a weekend like this anyway, so it’s great that we can offer them some services.”

As of Saturday, about 40 per cent of vendors at The Forks voluntarily reopened their businesses. 

Sipping on beer and overlooking the Assiniboine River, Christopher and Joni Storie enjoyed a plate of pizza. As professors, they have been spending a lot of time indoors pivoting their classes to online learning, and were glad to finally get out of the house. 

“It’s the first place we’ve been in two months,” said Christopher, who added the patrons he saw were being very respectful of physical distancing measures.

A few tables over, sisters Avery and Autumn Carroll devoured their soft-serve ice cream. Bill Carroll said looking after his young daughters has been difficult, especially staying on top of homework, so squeezing in an ice-cream break while the weather holds was very important.

“For the first time in forever, it was supposed to be a nice forecast. They’ve been cooped up all winter so we wanted to get outside and enjoy the nice weather,” said Carroll. 

Down on Corydon Avenue at Bar Italia, roommates Kasey Russell, Ryan Martins and Tanner Graveline sat at a table sipping beer out of plastic cups.

“The beer tastes better than it usually does,” Russell said.

This isn’t the first patio they’ve visited since the government announced Phase 1 of the province’s reopening strategy. They say each business has done well accommodating guests under the current distancing restrictions.

Rhea Collison, managing partner at Bar Italia, said the reopening has been quite busy, but guests have been co-operative, especially with security staff monitoring the area.

“It’s been a learning curve,” said Collison, mentioning how the business has reduced the patio capacity to 45 people and is now serving all items in compostable containers. 

Before the patio opened, Bar Italia moved to provide takeout only, and installed a window and physical distancing markers on the sidewalk. Taped to the take-out window is a sign instructing patio-goers to limit their time to 90 minutes.

“We want everyone to have a turn to be here… and then move on. We don’t want to deal with people, we call it ‘camping out’ here. It’s just not the time or place,” said Collison.

“In the future, when there’s more patios open, we’ll be able to go back to the way it was, but for now we are restricting it.”

Collison predicts business will be steady throughout the long weekend, especially if the weather stays warm and sunny.

nadya.pankiw@freepress.mb.ca