Fredericton Will Allow Restaurants To Use Tables In Public Outdoor Spaces Downtown
FREDERICTON – The City of Fredericton, Downtown Fredericton and Business Fredericton North have teamed up on an initiative that would see nearly 60 tables set up in public spaces for patrons of restaurants and cafes to use.
The tables and chairs will be set up in Phoenix Square (18 bistro-style tables) by the City Hall, Barracks Square (21 picnic tables) and the Nashwaaksis Commons (18 picnic tables). They’ll serve as an extension of sidewalk cafés and outdoor patios affected by physical distancing.
“[The idea] was all around what can we do to support local Fredericton restaurants, specifically in our downtown and North Side core,” said Bruce Grandy, a city councillor and chair of the city’s development committee.
He said with limited legislative tools to support restaurants, creating an expanded outdoor patio for the public is one of the things the city could do.
“It will allow people to go to their favourite restaurants, bring their food there and be able to eat them in a nice environment, and hopefully produce more sales for those restaurants,” he said.
The tables are numbered, so customers can also order from a restaurant and have their food delivered to their table. Restaurants don’t have to sign up, and the city will hire staff to sanitize the tables and monitor physical distancing at the venues.
The tables aren’t licensed for alcohol consumption, and they will be restricted to people within the two-household bubbles.
As part of the program, local artists and musicians will also be hired to offer cultural programming like public art displays and musical entertainment.
“Hopefully, that will drive more people to the downtown and it will provide people more confidence in the ability to go to their favourite restaurant and get food if they don’t want to sit [inside],” he said. “It’s all part of the initiative to support our local businesses.”
A call for artists will begin soon, with installations planned for mid-July. The city is looking for displays at Phoenix Square that are meant “to inspire the community and convey a sense of gratitude, strength, positivity, and hope.”
Grandy says the city hopes to have everything set up within the first two weeks of June and run until early September. Hours will vary from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. every day of the week, weather permitting.
The “al fresco” program could serve as a test run for some ideas within Fredericton’s City Centre Plan, which envisions a vibrant urban core with more active spaces, Grandy said.
For instance, the tables and chairs at Phoenix Square will “be mirrored” into Officers’ Square as part of the revitalization plan.
“Right where the museum and the small stage is, you’ll see this nice patio furniture, tables, chairs, umbrellas. It will be a place where you can enjoy the outdoors and go eat, bring your food there or have a picnic,” Grandy said.
Because of Covid-19, the city is waiving fees to sidewalk patios and will allow them a larger space to use where possible. Physical distancing has limited the number of customers businesses can take, so the city is hoping this could help them get more volume.
That’s in line with the City Centre Plan’s vision for things like tables in alleyways that will allow more community gatherings.
“[The al fresco program] allows us to experiment into that downtown, and it may allow us to implement more of that [City Centre] plan quicker than we thought as well,” Grandy added.
Food Trucks At Odell Park And Killarney Lake
Because summer events have been cancelled, the city will also allow local food trucks to set up in parking lots serving Odell and Killarney Lake parks. Each location will have two food trucks.
Two more food trucks will be allowed to set up at the Prospect Street entrance to Odell Park later in the summer. Health and safety protocols, including physical distancing measures, must be observed.
“We have a lot of people who have been pent up in their houses. They want to get out in the nice weather…and so it allows them to go ahead and get out and experience our parks, but also allows them to have meals or some food, and help support the food truck industry as well.”
The city aims for the food trucks to be as much as possible operated by Frederictonians. Food trucks that are interested to take part will have to go through Fredericton Tourism.