Dustin Leigh first heard about new provincial rules that would devastate his Barrie business through a tweet from a media outlet.
Leigh and Ty Jones are co-owners of Alley, a restaurant and nightclub in Barrie’s downtown. After closing Alley in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the duo spent months working hard to pivot their business model from a nightclub to an outdoor entertainment space.
Their new venture was only open a few short weeks before being forced to close its doors again due to new provincial regulations.
“There was no notice. We found out on the same day, and at the same time, that the public found out,” Leigh told BarrieToday.
Announced on Friday and effective as of Sept. 26 at 12:01 a.m., restaurants, bars and other food and drink establishments such as nightclubs are banned from selling alcohol after 11 p.m. Alcohol is not allowed to be consumed on business premises between midnight and 9 a.m. Businesses must also be closed by midnight and stay closed until 5 a.m., except for takeout and delivery.
Leigh owns the building in which Alley has operated for the past year at 34 Dunlop St. E., and has for many years, also owning previous businesses that operated out of the location, such as The Johnson’s Residence and The Mansion Nightclub.
He says when COVID hit in March, he opted to close down operations completely and spent the first few months of the pandemic planning on how to regroup.
“We shut down completely at that time,” said Leigh. “We sat in limbo. It was unprecedented times for everybody.”
The business remained closed until September when, after months of planning and working with the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario and the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit, Leigh pivoted his business to be in line with public health advice.
“I bought an outdoor space and did weekend events called Taco Alley, where we basically moved into the outdoors and served tacos and drinks in a socially distanced outdoor environment,” Leigh said. “It was our first move, and then in the fall we adapted again so people could stay outdoors but we had tents and a stage so we had food and live music.
“We made huge investments," he added. "With all the overhead, we took on to make this adaptation, we required every hour of service to make it work."
As a young business owner, Leigh says he’s constantly trying to balance risk while keeping his 70 staff members employed.
“We made these major adaptations to our business and safety measures around how we thought the government was going to manage balancing safety and the economy,” said Leigh.
Leigh said he sees the new regulations to be a method for the province to curb gatherings of people in the under-30 demographic, however being in the business of catering to that group, his experience tells him those groups will find a way to meet regardless.
“I feel it also shows a misunderstanding of this age group. People in their early 20s aren’t going to go out earlier. They have an alternative... people will party in private residences where there’s a lack of accountability,” Leigh said. “This will push this age group to do more of what they’re trying to stop.”
Leigh says he goes back and forth between understanding and feeling a deep level of frustration over the decision.
“I understand sacrifices need to be made for public safety. There are no routes here that have all pros and no cons,” he said. “What frustrates me is the contradictions in the approach by the government. We’re acting like a second wave was a surprise, but I believe everyone knew it was inevitable. We trusted there would be plans and preparations in place.
“For them to change the rules with no warning, it’s frustrating. For us, it speaks to a level of mismanagement. We were following what they deemed as responsible and safe. Then, they changed the rules while acting surprised,” he said.
As of this week, Alley and its modified business are again closing down.
“Having all this overhead with an 11 p.m. end just doesn’t work. We’re going to stop and wait,” said Leigh. “We took on a risk that, at the time, we didn’t see as a risk.”
Looking forward, Leigh considers himself one of the lucky ones. For him, having to close again will mean some of his long-term expansion plans, such as a rooftop patio installation, will have to be put on the back burner.
However, since he owns his building, he isn’t being pressured by a landlord to pay up or move out.
“We have a great business waiting for us when this is all over,” said Leigh. “This has just kind of killed the dream a little bit. This just put us in a bad spot and into some debt scenarios we weren’t expecting to be in.”
