Photo courtesy of Grit City Distillery / Facebook

By Scott Roblin

Revamping & Renos

Renovations taking centre stage for local businesses during pandemic

May 13, 2020 | 5:33 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – For months, restaurant and bar owners in Medicine Hat have looked at empty tables and chairs wondering what the future of their businesses would look like.

In all that uncertainty, some are using the extra time to focus on revamping their business for when re-opening finally arrives.

Renovations have taken centre stage for a handful of local businesses as a way to both keep busy during the pandemic and improve their space for future customers.

Grit City Distillery is one of those local establishments making the jump into spring renovations, putting much of their attention into a total revamp of their kitchen and food preparation space.

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“It’s the perfect time to do that,” said Grit City owner Andy Schmunk. “There’s a lot of places who have been shut down and they’ve used that time to completely revamp or renovate their own businesses. We think that’s a good use of time.”

The improvements include new equipment, flooring, baseboards, and a wooden wall separating the rest of the back work space.

Schmunk joked that their location has turned into Medicine Hat’s newest pizza joint, as they’ve been able to serve hot meals to customers by pick-up which is helping to ease the sting of the pandemic.

“We thought to ourselves going into COVID-19 that if we’re going to be doing some work, if we have some time, let’s focus on our kitchen,” said Schmunk. “We want to focus on something that people can be proud of in terms of where they’re eating and what they’re eating.”

Schmunk just has to look across the street to find another Medicine Hat bar taking advantage of the extra time, with The Silver Buckle undertaking their largest renovation project in years.

Much attention has been paid to The Silver Buckle’s floors, which have been restored to their original hardwood look following three weeks of sanding.

They’ve also replaced the bar top, added additional lights and re-painted all the walls, beams, and ceiling.

According to Schmunk, these renovations for the food and beverage industry will do wonders for businesses looking for a silver lining once life returns to some sort of normalcy.

“It’s nice that we can all draw from each other,” he said. “Some people do their front of house, some people do their kitchens and whatnot. We’re all paying attention and we’re all listening to each other, we’re having conversations on how to best spend our downtime. So, that’s something that we have heard from people and we decided to act on it.”

Although they qualify under the province’s re-opening plan for this Thursday, Grit City say that timeline is still a hair early for them and will be taking their time in opening their doors again.