A pop-up patio has appeared in the parking lot beside the Moose Jaw Times-Herald building, giving downtown workers and tourists a place to eat their meals while getting some fresh air.
The idea came from online discussions that the Moose Jaw & District Chamber of Commerce held with other businesses during the pandemic, as the organization wanted to find ways to support downtown businesses, particularly restaurants, explained chamber CEO Rob Clark. The idea was customers could order their food to-go and then have a commons area to sit and eat.
“It took longer than we thought (to put together),” he chuckled, as there seemed to be hurdles every time progress was made. “(However,) it was a great learning experience for the future.”
Since the discussions about the patio occurred around June, the chamber and some of its partners — including the City of Moose Jaw, WOW Factor Media and Tourism Moose Jaw — attempted to launch the downtown patio for July 1. However, they could not meet that deadline and instead opened mid-month.
The group was interested in increasing the capacity of some restaurants at a time when those businesses were still restricted in numbers, explained Jacki L’Heureux-Mason, executive director of Tourism Moose Jaw. They started with the idea of having a pop-up patio outside of each restaurant, but that did not prove possible.
“In different conversations, we decided there were a couple of really great spaces we could look at beautifying in Moose Jaw and utilizing as a patio,” she continued, including the parking lot in between Veroba’s and the Times-Herald.
The pop-up patio did not cost the downtown businesses any money, as almost everything — from the flowers to the benches — were donated. L’Heureux-Mason noted it was a community effort that put this project together and that created this gathering spot.
Members of the Rotary Club of Moose Jaw Wakamow look after the cleaning and receive a small stipend for their efforts.
“It’s something we are hoping to continue,” she added. “It’s not just a COVID initiative. I think there is some really strong evidence that this could be something great for us moving forward.”
Clark has sat on the patio a couple of times, while he knows of others who have posted pictures to social media showing themselves eating there. Sometimes while driving past, he will also see a couple of people sitting.
While he admitted it has been a slow process to attract more people, Clark said this has been a great experience for next year since organizers want to build on what they’ve learned.
These insights include expanding the pop-up patio to other locations, such as Crescent Park and other downtown parking lots; having Tourism Moose Jaw promote the patio as part of a “staycation,” and; being better prepared in general.
“I’m satisfied with it because it did happen. It did go,” he said. “Some of the businesses … thought it was a great idea in general” but were unable to create something at their locations due to the need for extra cleaning and extra staff.
“It changes the culture a little bit downtown,” Clark added. “We put a good effort into it and we’ll continue on with the effort and make it bigger and better next year.”
